What I want to see implimented.

Muff

Water Chip? Been There, Done That
What I want to see in any future fallout game.

1) No more 200 year old food, or at least limit it in the extreme.

I could accept ration packs in Military nuclear bunkers that are nearly intact perhaps being salvageable in places like Svalbard at a real stretch, but in a Subway, Restaurant or House it wouldn't last more than a year or two. Especially when it's in a urban area that would have been picked clean within months of a nuclear war.
In a Vault I could deal with food reprocessing systems still intact, but even then it would be a serious risk to eating it, if the vault was flooded with radiation.

2) Less ammunition.

If as it looks like we are going to see a return to the Capital or close areas. I need to know who is producing the chemicals to make Gun Powder a relatively simple compound or Primers for bullets. I can accept some level of reloading and new ammunition production. But not being able to build up a small personal stockpile of several hundred rounds. Hell 10 rounds should make you feel rich for a rifle or a shotgun.

3) While we are on it less working Firearms, that are not primitive or manufactured in high tech areas.

Right I can accept a few prewar weapons, hell if a Vault has survived unmolested they would have pre-war weapons that where issued to the Vault. And I could accept the odd lucky find in a sealed container in a Police Station, Home, Military stockpile etc. And I do mean a lucky find say a crate of 6 rifles you might be able to piece together a single working weapon.
What I would like to see is less assault weapons, more single shot home made weapons if we insist on using premade rounds. Or say flint lock / electrically discharged weapons that are muzzle or breach loading, that take time and AP to reload.

While I am on it, let's talk about Bows, Cross Bows, slings etc. Let's at least have them, be it a bow made from a scavenged leaf spring using some Steel cable for string, and arrow heads made from recycled cars etc.

Slings are also missing from Fallout, this has to be one of Humanities most basic weapons. It has been in use for millennia and it's also one I have experience with. You can make a very effective one from simple string, You can make one like mine using some string and a bit of leather (any leather will do) and something that fit's in the pouch or even gravel (this is essentially a caveman shotgun, when loaded with gravel), the ammo could be as simple as a rock or nut.
Hell Ammunition could be a craftable idem all you need is a little bit of wet sand or clay, your thumb, and some lead, this method was used in I believe what is modern day Israel / Palestine and has archeological finds of unused casts and used ones with lead spills, and used ammunition that have cast thumb prints on them.

Now let's go back to bows, the ammunition is not the same. You don't just make a pointy stick aim and fire:
For small game, you use a blunt tip, which is just how it sounds a shaft with flights and shaft no tip.
For game you used a broad head.
For Armoured targets you use a Bodkin.

Also if Crossbows are being made, we can assume they can make Stonebows, if you can't be bothered reading the link it was used to take down small game, it can also be used to take out a man sized target depending on size of projectile and strength of the bow.
Now birds seem to be nearly extinct in Fallout, so it's not going to be common to find feathers to use as flights for arrows, well you can use prity much any reasonably stiff material, leather, rough / waxed fabrics, a leaf. Even untanned hide (skins) that's been waxed can be used (the wax will stiffen it) even a bit of Tree bark.

4) Longer lasting cripples, OK I can accept that a Stimpack will help treat a wound, let's say it's a combination of Antibiotic, Coagulant, Steroid and pain relief. It might patch you up long enough to be able to hobble to a doctor that can give you better treatment. What I refuse to accept it will cure a crippling injury.

OK you fight off a gang of raiders, but in the process you took a round to the leg, flesh wound but still a nasty one your pissing blood. You use the stimpack in your backpack and it slows down the bleeding, numbs the pain and you think you can get back to the doctor in the last town you where in. It was 5 hours walk an you think you can make it back before you bleed out you wrap a cloth round your leg to steam a little bit of bleeding you have and make your way back towards civilization and just hope the doctor can help you.

OK so you make it back to civilization, in time and the Doctor stops the nasty infection killing you not just to mention the blood loss, but you have nerve damage and unbeknownst to you a fracture. To move round you need a crutch in the short term and a surgical brace in the long term. Now this is the Fallout universe so I am willing to accept there might just be some medical knowledge that can permanently fix crippling wounds, but it wont be cheep and not every what passes for a "Doctor" will have the knowledge of it.

Let's say, you wake up in the Doctors surgery on his table he can't cure your nerve damage, but he say's the Doc in Huge town can. It will cost you either Your fancy Gun, All your caps, or every damned thing you have on you, to take you to the place that can heal you back to something approaching normal. Some doctors might be able to be talked into doing it for cost by passing a Skill or SPECIAL check, but not all.
OK so 6 months a year down the line, your doing a quest and you step in a old tap or the floor in the old building gives way under the same leg an you badly break it in the same place, it wont heal as well again this time you need a surgical brace etc.
A single stimpack to the wound should not fix a cripple every time.

This is a ongoing list and is mostly made from things I have been thinking about to improve Fallouts setting. And I will be adding more.
 
Your ideas sound awesome, especially the wound thing. I would totally buy this game, but i think if they implemented this it wouldnt really be fallout anymore. The setting and gameplay require some unrealistic things and suspension of disbelief
 
BonusWaffle said:
Your ideas sound awesome, especially the wound thing. I would totally buy this game, but i think if they implemented this it wouldnt really be fallout anymore. The setting and gameplay require some unrealistic things and suspension of disbelief

As I said I am willing to allow some liberties as the game's setting it's self needs some suspension of disbelief, and I am a fan of Fallout 1, 2 and NV, this is more a wish list of stuff I would like to see in Fallout or a Post Apocalypse game, in general.

But that you for the "awsome" comment, add fuel to my fire so to speak.
 
BonusWaffle said:
Your ideas sound awesome, especially the wound thing. I would totally buy this game, but i think if they implemented this it wouldnt really be fallout anymore. The setting and gameplay require some unrealistic things and suspension of disbelief
They are pretty awesome ideas, but Bethesda or whoever will work on Fallout 4 probably won't implement them. Bethesda won't because it would make the game too 'difficult', and other developers won't put them in because it takes away the feel of Fallout a bit.
 
the Doctor stops the nasty infection killing you

This is something I've always wanted to explore in Fallout. Like say if you sleep with someone there's the possibility of contracting a STD. Or if you use chems like Med-X you run a risk of hepatitis or other blood borne disease from a dirty needle. How about some food poisoning from them iguana bits? Food prep can't be very sterile in the wastes.
 
I guess the logic behind having old food is gamma radiation which sterilizes it. Not sure it would be healthy to stay around an area which has no problems killing bacteria.

Firearms and munition - old, pre-War factories are used to work around that. The Gun Runners in Fallout have control of a gun factory, so they can make top-notch firearms and lots of ammunition, and then distribute it to others. Brotherhood of Steel traded lots of sci-fi weapons to the Hub, with their ability to recreate them. Now that the NCR is in power of old bunkers, creating a large stockpile should be no problem.
 
Walpknut said:
Well, eating raw food in New Vegas gave you penalties to strenght and endurance.

I'm talkin' something more random from cooked or raw food. Eating even in today's society is playing bacterial rush and roulette. Maybe they could do it where a food randomly inflicts a stat penalty and gives you the foggy head effect like having a crippled head does, I dunno, thinking out loud.
 
Sub-Human said:
I guess the logic behind having old food is gamma radiation which sterilizes it. Not sure it would be healthy to stay around an area which has no problems killing bacteria.

Firearms and munition - old, pre-War factories are used to work around that. The Gun Runners in Fallout have control of a gun factory, so they can make top-notch firearms and lots of ammunition, and then distribute it to others. Brotherhood of Steel traded lots of sci-fi weapons to the Hub, with their ability to recreate them. Now that the NCR is in power of old bunkers, creating a large stockpile should be no problem.

The food thing is more than that, think about it after what 10 / 15 years the tin of food might look like it's still edible but it contains next to nothing in terms of nutritional value, so after 200 years left in a decaying building the integrity of the packaging be it a tin or a foil wrapper would have failed and it would not be edible. The only way it could have survived is if it was in a practically cryogenic environment like the Arctic (Svalbard), and even then it would be pushing it.

I am writing a reply regarding arms manufacture and industry in general, that I will be posting shortly.
 
Muff said:
The food thing is more than that, think about it after what 10 / 15 years the tin of food might look like it's still edible but it contains next to nothing in terms of nutritional value, so after 200 years left in a decaying building the integrity of the packaging be it a tin or a foil wrapper would have failed and it would not be edible. The only way it could have survived is if it was in a practically cryogenic environment like the Arctic (Svalbard), and even then it would be pushing it.

How does the food degrade if it is sterilized and artificially-created (made to last, in other words) in the first place?
 
Sub-Human & Alesia, I am looking for the source now I have it bookmarked, it was in some study done during the 50's by either the DOD or MOD.

But in general, if tinned food is kept in a stable environment without rust etc the nutritional quality of the food is practically noting after a long time but it can still be eaten, but when the can is compromised it goes off fast.
 
Sub-Human said:
Muff said:
The food thing is more than that, think about it after what 10 / 15 years the tin of food might look like it's still edible but it contains next to nothing in terms of nutritional value, so after 200 years left in a decaying building the integrity of the packaging be it a tin or a foil wrapper would have failed and it would not be edible. The only way it could have survived is if it was in a practically cryogenic environment like the Arctic (Svalbard), and even then it would be pushing it.

How does the food degrade if it is sterilized and artificially-created (made to last, in other words) in the first place?

First, sterilization is not always a 100% germs kill. If there is any, given enough time and nutrients (hey, food have nutrients!), bacteria grows again. Second, bacteria might land from air or through the surface the food is on, except it's in perfect isolation. If the container starts to fail, then the food will get contaminated. If the place it's in is hostile enough to keep bacteria out, it's either because it has antibiotics, which given enough time, bacteria tend to get resistant to, or it's something that decomposes living material, which is not that different from food, so you'll end up with few to none nutritional value in your food at some point (and that's for the "radiated environment" argument). Persistant radiation also tends to damage containers, so the food is no longer isolated. I can't say it's impossible to make food that lasts 200 years, but I'm 100% sure you can not make food that lasts FOREVER. This reasoning isn't quantitave, though. I find it hard to believe it lasts more than 30-50 years, anyway, when specifically designed to last a long time.

And, as Muff says, there is natural decay (living beings consume energy to try to avoid it) in biomolecules, which food is made of (to say the least, we need essential aminoacids which we haven't an enzymatic path to make from simpler molecules), so the nutritional value goes down with time. And this has nothing to do with microbia, but with thermodynamics and chemical kynetics by themselves.
 
The only way food could survive 200 years and still be edible that I can see is if it were somehow synthetic, which I think is what Sub-Human is going on. It might not be that much of a stretch for them to press a bunch of powdered chemicals, preservatives, vitamin powders, and flavorings into a patty and call it salsbury steak. I'm not even sure if such a thing would work in the real world or how decay/radiation would affect it. I did read canned food could survive with all of it's nutritional value intact provided it was stored at sub zero temperatures consistently....which don't exist in Fallout save for maybe a freezer in a vault.

The rough data I have on preserved foods longevity (in modern society):

Dehydrated: 1 year
Freeze dried: 10 years
Canned: Indefinite so long as it's stored at the above mentioned frozen temperatures.
 
On a side note:

"1999: Scientists at Emory University declare the Peep "indestructible" after a series of joke experiments. The researchers tested everything from submerging the sugary candies in boiling water and sulfuric acid, freezing them using liquid nitrogen, and microwaving them. "

Post apocalyptic America will survive on the Peep! :D
 
Oppen said:
And, as Muff says, there is natural decay (living beings consume energy to try to avoid it) in biomolecules, which food is made of (to say the least, we need essential aminoacids which we haven't an enzymatic path to make from simpler molecules), so the nutritional value goes down with time. And this has nothing to do with microbia, but with thermodynamics and chemical kynetics by themselves.

Yeah, that makes sense then.
 
You grossly underestimate people's ability to manufacture and produce firearms, ammunition and everything.

Bows are also pretty dumb and jesus christ what is it with games and bows/crossbows lately.
 
Sub-Human & Alesia, I can't find that link it's bookmarked on one of 5 computers. But I have posted a request on a forum a I frequent where some one will know what the paper is called at least. Please bear with me while I carry on trying to find it.
But the paper is long winded and says, what Oppen posted but with prity graphs and such.

Wintermind said:
You grossly underestimate people's ability to manufacture and produce firearms, ammunition and everything.

Bows are also pretty dumb and jesus christ what is it with games and bows/crossbows lately.

Really? Do you think some one today in a age of power tool's knows about hand forging steel? most small time metal workers today order plate, and tube to size then, mill to requirements then weld using a MIG / TIG welder. How about Spring production? How about heat treatment?
Not to mention the chemistry involved in manufacturing the primers necessary to make bullets, it's not just something you recall from secondary school chemistry, it's also volatile stuff.

As I said, I have nothing agenst some modern firearms in context. But what I don't want to see is 200 year old assault rifles being picked up in a workable condition with some exceptions, that being a faction that is able to either build them from scratch, or as I said perhaps finding some in a Military bunker in a sealed case where your able to put one together. But not in a vault that's flooded with water, not in the back of a truck that was left on the side of a road or in a building that has serious structural damage.

What I would like to see is more primitive weapons construction, let's say Zip (pipe) gun's, Breach loading shotguns etc. And if you want to get even more low tech, Flint locks, Match locks and the most basic the Hand cannon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_cannon there is even a case for partial recycling of weapons say you live on a farm and survive the war reasonably intact, you live out your life have a few kids with the correct number of fingers and toes, and they have kids and one day your grand child is fighting off a mutated rabbit in the carrot field and for some reason the barrel fails on the single barrel shotgun he inherited from you. Any how he somehow managed a critical hit on peter rabbits mutated cousin, goes home an thinks "Humm how do I fix Gramps old gun?" he winds up taking a bit of hydroloic pipe from the useless bit of machinery sitting in the barn called a tractor and the shell fit's, takes his gun down to the local settlement and get's Bob the local blacksmith to fit it for him.

There is two ways the above can end, one he is a good metal worker and fit's the replacement barrel well, the other is he has little to no clue about the pressures involved and the first time Angus the 3rd uses it and it blows up in his face.
 
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