Why do so many people hate the Shi/Hubologists?

Yazman

Yazman

It Wandered In From the Wastes
It seems that there's a hell of a lot of people around (not just on NMA) that think the Shi don't "fit in" with Fallout and that they somehow "fuck up" San Francisco.. many of them seem to think the same thing about the Hubologists.

Why? I thought they were interesting, and I thought their story was suitably "post-apocalyptic" in how they managed to survive (being in the submarine) and how they are descended from the crew. It makes sense, submarines usually have pretty large crews (80 people is enough for a genetically viable population, when talking about humans).

The Hubologists fit in too imo, even if they ARE clearly a parody of Scientology. I think given the remnants of a space-faring civilization it would be easy for a crazy person, or an opportunist, to see it and develop a cult based around it - something that they don't really understand.

So why do so many people think the Shi are out of place/bad for Fallout? What about the Hubologists?
 
How much sense does it make for a group of People's Liberation Army soldiers to start a cliched kung-fu town? The Shi being a communist society would make much more sense.
 
A cliche'd kung-fu town run by a computer, complete with pinnacle technology scientists and enough weapons to conquer the continent.
 
Yeah, urban punks are much more realistic. Fallout 1 and 2 are as far from a realistic post apocalyptic setting as it gets. There should be a lot more tribal communities, based on hunting and collecting. But it's not supposed to be that way. Enjoy the comedy instead of worrying.
 
It's not about realism. It's about verisimilitude. San Fran in FO2 doesn't fit the setting.
 
I see. That's kindof right. But somedays I think, that almost nothing in 2 fits the original setting, so 2 has it's own setting, where there's one rule: everything fits.
 
I think when it comes to assessing versimillitude in a game, we gotta ask ourselves 'how did i feel when i very first encountered this aspect of the game' (in this case, the shi)

Well, when i first encountered them, it jarred me. I was enjoying ploughing through the awesome post-apocalyptic retro-future western style world, and most everything just 'seemed to fit'. Kind of like the oracle says in 'Matrix reloaded' - 'the programs that are doing what they're supposed to do you don't even notice'

As soon as i encountered the shi i felt like something was wrong, and the beautiful illusion the game was weaving for me was cracked a little.

Now, i could jump into the intellectual break-down of if the crew of a submarine has enough crew to start a town, how many people are required to make gene-pool healthy, what kind of society they would make etc. And good points they are.

But for me, the most important thing is how these 'added ingredients' taste. If they taste good they make me want to keep on eating. IMO, when BIS sprinkled in some 'gangland' mafia stuff in the form of New Reno, i lapped it up cos it tasted great and went with the rest of the meal. But they threw in a dash of Bruce-lee, kung fu, eastern culture it tasted bitter, like too much lemon juice, and put me off my food a little .... :)
 
Yes you guys are right... the whole "kung fu" thing does seem to be kinda silly and way out of place. WTF were they thinking? I never thought about it that way before but you guys have blown my mind, lol.

Wouldn't it make more sense for them to be running a very militaristic town? Maybe something like a Vault City or Brotherhood of Steel type of place with a chinese flavour.. I mean the place WAS founded by the chinese navy.

Also the Hubologists right from the start have one major thing that bothers me. The space travel thing and that it is implied they could be successful or could even begin to work on a space shuttle to make it worthy of flight. What the fuck?
 
Wouldn't it make more sense for them to be running a very militaristic town? Maybe something like a Vault City or Brotherhood of Steel type of place with a chinese flavour.. I mean the place WAS founded by the chinese navy.
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And communist flavor, preferrably.
 
Argh I hate San Fran. I mean, remember how hard it was to get power armor in Fallout 1? Now all you have to do is buy it from one of two shopkeepers! Whenever I replay Fallout 2, I usually stop in San Fran, I just can't seem to keep on playing.
 
TheRatKing said:
Argh I hate San Fran. I mean, remember how hard it was to get power armor in Fallout 1? Now all you have to do is buy it from one of two shopkeepers! Whenever I replay Fallout 2, I usually stop in San Fran, I just can't seem to keep on playing.
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What? I have never seen them store Power Armour in the shops.
 
TheRatKing said:
Argh I hate San Fran. I mean, remember how hard it was to get power armor in Fallout 1? Now all you have to do is buy it from one of two shopkeepers! Whenever I replay Fallout 2, I usually stop in San Fran, I just can't seem to keep on playing.
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Yeah, unfortunately, usually same here.
 
Funny, I never really though of it as a problem, but then New Reno never bothered me either. When playing FO2 I just enjoyed it so much that I didn't analyse everything so closely. For me the Shi or Reno or Hub, were just various interestingly different groups and places. Only in retrospect did I wish the Shi were more communist oriented, a collective society of sorts.

For me the Wannamingos and alien stuff is what was annoying. Hate how everything ends up with aliens. I only ever encountered the random alien crash in FO1 once, on a replay two weeks ago, so it didn't annoy me much.
 
I liked the Hubologists more than the Enclave, and thought they would've made a better "ultimate bad-guy faction" than the Enclave.

The Shi are sillier than the Enclave, though.
 
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