World Map

In Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics, World Map is bird's view map of the landscape, divided into a matrix of square-sized sectors.

World Map's primary function is to enable navigation for player's travels. When player leaves a location with intent to travel to another one (typically located far away, due to Fallout world's extremely low population density per square mile), he is presented with the World Map.

When stationary, player's location is marked by an icon (inverse pyramid), clicking on which would take him to the location he's currently at, which does not have to be a specially designed location - player can make stops in the desert or the mountains to relieve himself of unnecessary equipment, change or reload the weapons he's holding, or administer drugs to himself or one of his party members.

To move the player across the map, one has to click at any area he's not currently at. In Fallout and Fallout 2, player's location would be marked by a red cross icon, and his path would be traced by line strokes (the stroke length hints at player's speed - the longer they are, the more time it took the player to travel through that particular sector). In Fallout Tactics, player's location would be marked by radiation trefoil, and no tracing is available.

Travel speed across the World Map is determined by the sectors it's comprised of. Desert and Ruins sectors are the fastest to travel across. Mountains are the slowest, and Ocean sectors are impossible to travel across. Player's speed may be increased by possessing a special Perk, or driving a vehicle (not possible in the original Fallout).

Sometimes (about every 24 hours of travel), the game 'rolls' a check for random encounters. If the roll was successful, a flashing icon would briefly appear for a few moments, and the player will leave the World Map screen to face the situation. Alternatively, he may be presented with a dialog window describing the encounter, and a choice whether to face it (in Fallout 2, the chance to get that choice is determined by player's Outdoorsman Skill level).

A common feature on the World Map screen is the indicators for current time, date, and year, as well as a list of special locations already visited, clicking on which would automatically change player's course to that location.

In the beginning of the game, the World Map starts completely black. As player travels, the sectors he visited will appear bright, while the sectors in the immediate vicinity of the ones he visited will appear dark, so as to give him an idea of what to expect. Travelling across a Beach sector would reveal all Ocean sectors to the left of it (because none of the Fallout games took place near Atlantic Coast). There is no special prize or bonus for exploring all sectors, other than discovering locations not required to visit to finish the game.

Special locations such as towns are be marked by green circles of various size. In Fallout 2, Special encounters the player faced are also marked with small green circles. If the player's vehicle runs out of fuel, he will have to abandon it, and the car's location will also be marked with a small green circle.