Your thoughts on New Reno? Was it a good Fallout-location or not?

[ElloinmorninJ]

This was just something I wanted to ask. What do you guys think of New Reno?

Revisiting some old threads, I've noticed that many on this server feel New Reno as a Fallout location was mishandled. https://www.nma-fallout.com/threads/what-are-the-issues-with-new-reno.186029/page-3

I don't want any arguments, I just wanted to have a discussion. Do any of you feel that New Reno was mishandled and unrealistic? If so, what changes would you have made, if you were capable of doing so?

The main issues people usually talk about with New Reno is that it doesn't fit in with the rest of the Fallout universe, and that its economy was unrealistic, and that they went to far with the whole "Post-apoc drugs and whores town" thing.

Personally, all I'd do is want to add some more production to New Reno, to like make it make sense for this town to be so powerful. Maybe one of the Crime families would be more focused on more important resources like food, water, and slavery- the drugs would still work as well. As long as there's some sort of population providing for the town, it would make much more sense.

 

[TomJ]

My issue with New Reno would be that its primarily a tourist town existing in a world where there aren't that many people with disposable income and there is very little capacity to travel great distances in a reasonable amount of time. If we are going to let that bit be sacrificed for the sake of story, Reno would still exist as a trade hub since it would be the biggest town on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. To improve on it as a city, it would need to have a bigger focus on production of goods like food, medicine and other consumer goods like clothing. I get that the older games had a hard time doing this because of limitations in the game engine, but if we are talking about a work of literature, the limitation of a 20 year old game engine are not a limiting factor.

One thing that would make Western Nevada more interesting would be potential rivalries between Reno and other towns around the area. Virginia City has mines, which could have been used as shelters from the fallout. Which means Virginia City could be a minor power vying with Reno for economic importance. The same thing could be said about Carson City which would have better farmland around it which would be an asset in the Fallout world.

Also a thing that can be explored is what would the trade routes through Nevada be like, specifically along I-80, US 50 and US 95. There would still be some people out there. And probably parts of the Paiute and Shoshone tribes. Showing how the Native Americans would have survived in the face of the apocalypse would be interesting to say the least.