Fallout Bible 8

Fallout Bible 8 is the eighth installment of the Fallout Bible, a collection of documents containing background material for the first Fallout games compiled and written by Chris Avellone. This installment was released on October 2, 2002.

All notes in italics come from The Vault editors, not from Chris Avellone himself.

The Fallout Bible upd-eight
Here's the eighth Fallout Bible update - if you missed any of the others, check the Black Isle main page (www.blackisle.com), scroll down, and click on the "Read More News Here" section (and scroll down or do a "Find" for "Fallout"). The first three updates have been collected into a sinister "Update Zero" and the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh updates stand on their own.

For those of you who haven't seen these before, the Fallout Bible is a collection of background material and hi-jinks from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 compiled into one document so the fans can take a look at it. If you see anything wrong or if you think of anything you'd like to see, email me at Cavellone@blackisle.com and I'll see what I can do. I can't promise I'll answer your emails immediately, but I will get around to it, usually when the weekend hits.

Anyway, blah, blah, blah. This update contains an interview with Fallout designer Scott Bennie, a crapload of questions, the original draft of the EPA, the fury and flurry of nuclear winters, a little bit about the old Wasteland "sequel" Meantime, why the Corvega Highwayman has a fat ass, a bit on tribal societies, a new mind-bending contest, the winners of two others, and more random irradiated crap from the Fallout universe.

Thanks for supporting Fallout,

Chris Avellone @ Black Isle Studios

Fast forward
Here's another list of stuff to start the update with. It's almost the same thing as last time, so you can fast forward over this if you're a veteran of these updates.

1. Again, any questions or suggestions for the Fallout Bible, send it on in to Cavellone@blackisle.com.

Before you do, though, read #2, below, and "Questions I Will Not Answer," after that.

2. Suggestions for material to include in the Bible, suggestions for good Fallout fifties tunes, comments on why you like pen and paper RPGs over computer RPGs, questions about Fallout events, and suggestions for good source material are welcome, but there are a number of things I can't or won't answer because I am busy and I hate you. They include:


 * Giving hints or walkthroughs for the game. If you need a hint or a walkthrough, go to the Black Isle message boards at:


 * http://feedback.blackisle.com

And within fifteen seconds, someone will post an answer to your problem. The answer will occasionally be snide and sarcastic and may be followed by the words, "silly rabbit" or "dumbass," but you will get your answer. So make your voice heard.


 * Providing technical support. If you have any troubles with your Fallout disks or other Interplay games, you need to contact Interplay customer support at one of the following addresses:

For technical problems:

support@interplay.com

And for any other questions regarding Interplay products, barring hints and tips:

orderdesk@interplay.com


 * Answering questions outside of Fallout 1 or 2. Occasionally, if I am lucky, I can answer Fallout Tactics questions. I don't answer Fallout 3 questions.


 * Reading fan fiction or fan-created material for Fallout.


 * Providing any information, walkthroughs, hints, or support on the Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale I or II, Planescape: Torment, or Dark Alliance.

3. Thanks for everybody who sent in tunes - if you have anything that strikes you as a good Fallout fifties ambiance, send it my way at the email address, in #1, above. I'm always looking for new music tunes.

4. There are a lot of questions sitting in my archive. If you don't see your question here (especially if it was recent), I haven't forgotten, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

5. Oh, and Robbie wants me to post a link to his website in the next release of the Fallout Bible.

http://www.geocities.com/ashfordcity

I want to make a MUSH/MUD/mod/PnP/d20 conversion with Fallout!
I figure this may hold off a lot of questions for you potential game developers (or whatever) out there who want to do stuff with the Fallout license. Before you read the following, keep in mind:

1. What follows is the best answer I can give you. It took a very long time to get this answer for some of you, but here is the answer I was able to get. Don't like it? Tough.

2. As long as what you are doing does not have a price tag associated with it, you are not making money with it, it doesn't hurt or misrepresent the Fallout license, there are still risks involved, but the risk is much smaller. Get an intellectual property lawyer and ask them some questions.

Now, if you will imagine the question as:

I want to do a MUSH/MUD/MOD/PNP/D20 Conversion for Fallout. Can I?
Here's the official word, and the official word is that (1) we can't give an official word, and (2) this should not be taken as "no," but as a "if you want to do it, you'll have to proceed at your own risk."

Confusing? Let me explain:

To give you an official word, we would have to sign contracts, which Black Isle Studios doesn't have the time to do.

If you still want to use the Fallout stuff, you would have to abide by trademark and copyright law regarding the Fallout license, and to do that, BIS recommends you ask an intellectual property lawyer.

Lastly, this is not official permission, but as long as you don't use the Fallout license to generate income or in such a way to misrepresent or harm the license (e.g., put it up on a webpage that advertises child porn), or include misrepresentations or material that harms the license in the Fallout game/mod/whatever that you're making, or make it appear as though Interplay is the source of your material (e.g., "This is the official Interplay-sponsored MUSH!"), you should be all right.

Again, this is not official permission, just a guide for what BIS suggests you do if you want to use the Fallout license. We just want you to know if you choose to use the Fallout license, you could potentially be taking some legal risks.

So basically, you can use Fallout if you're willing to take the intellectual property risks. This isn't a "no" or an "official yes," just a "if you want to do this, you'll be proceeding at your own risk."

I wish we could just come out and say, "sure," but we don't have the time for contracts. In my opinion, as long as you hold true to the Fallout license, make sure there's no money involved, and don't claim it's an Interplay-sponsored or official thing, you should be fine.

Tribal societies
Anyway to get the balls rolling, David Camacho had a comment on tribal societies from a few issues ago. And here it is.


 * In the July 10, 2002, edition of the Fallout Bible, someone had questions about the re-emergence of tribal societies; particularly in Arroyo.


 * There're a number of instances of European settlers 'going native.' There's a tribe in Honduras, the Miskito, I believe, who are descended from English settlers who were stranded. They speak a form of pidgin-English, and live much like a traditional hunting-fishing society in the region. There is also a tribe in the Amazon that is descended from German settlers, who speak a Germanic dialect that's very difficult for native German speakers to understand.


 * My impression from playing the games was that the Vault Dweller came across some people in the wastelands and led them to Arroyo, where they resettled, and that these people had already become tribal, possibly in the time since the War, and might have been descended from people who never lived in a Vault, but somehow managed to survive.


 * Also, I don't know if this is a coincidence, but there is a town in California called Mariposa.

Thanks, David. If anybody else out there has comments, feel free to send them my way, and I'll post them.

Pie in the face section
Welcome to the pie in the face section where you get to rub my nose in bad facts. As promised, this will be a regular feature.

1. Will Toraason had some comments about the New York reactor incident that I Homer Simpson'd in the Fallout Timeline:


 * I don't know if you're still updating it, but I have a minor note for the timeline...


 * The June 2065 entry mentions a nuclear reactor in NYC that "almost goes critical." A critical reactor is a normal condition, meaning that the reactor is at a constant, stable power level (the same number of neutrons are in one generation as in the next, blah blah blah). An uncontrolled supercritical condition is dangerous, implying that power is rising at incredibly rapid rates, and can lead to meltdown of the fuel, release of radioactive fission products to the public, flipper babies, and the like.


 * So what's meant is something like "...a nuclear reactor in NYC goes supercritical, almost causing a meltdown..."


 * Keep the mutants down,


 * Will Toraason
 * Your Friendly Neighborhood Nuclear Power Physicist

Thanks, Will.

2. I couldn't find the original EPA design doc last time, but I managed to dig it up - this first draft was done by Jason Suinn, who eventually passed it off to me...

...so there you go. The first draft of the EPA in all its scanned glory.

Deathclaws
I have two big winners this time, one for the deathclaws and the other is for nuclear winters. The big winner for the Deathclaws is (try to imagine the flashing lights and cheering crowds):

There you have it, Anthonie Wain was the BIG WINNER from last time. His answer, correct, was the tarrasque. His answer boils down to:

Blatantly Deathclaw = mini- Tarrasque

And to the bunches of other people who sent in their answers - you were all right on the first guess.

Big winners and big winters
Okay, I finally went through all the Nuclear Winter responses and the winner is:

Although Mark was just as helpful about providing nuclear winter info as everyone else, he was also very, very fast and very, very patient, so he wins. Note I wasn't looking for a "right" answer, just some explanations. Anyway, here's Mark's response:


 * In update 6 of the Fallout Bible you asked for someone to 'illuminate' you in regards to the effects of a nuclear winter. Well if you'd be kind enough to sit through the next few paragraphs without falling asleep, I'll have a crack at it. ;) It's the sort of thing that's only interesting if you're, well, interested in it...


 * First off, I'd just like to stress that I'm only an amateur nuclear war/post-apocalypse buff, not a physics major. I just delve into this stuff because it fascinates the hell out of me, but I only understand the most basic elements of the physics involved.


 * The whole Nuclear Winter theory itself was first proposed in 1982 by a German scientist called Paul Crutzen but it was seized on by five other scientists; Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagan. Their article for Science magazine entitled "Nuclear winter, global consequences of multiple nuclear explosions" made the theory into the culture-icon that it is today. Anyway, from there the idea was quickly picked up by Russian scientists and all of them together managed to successfully convince the world that a US 'v' USSR nuclear war would bring about a global, ice-age like winter. It probably wasn't such a bad idea during the whole Reagen cold-war revivalism period. Sort of a reminder to people what a really -bad- idea nuclear war would be, at a time when things were again becoming strained.


 * Unfortunately for Sagan et. al. (but fortunately for the Fallout series, since it maintains the status quo) the original Nuclear Winter theory has had some major holes poked in it since it first became popular. Most notably in 1986 when two American atmospheric scientists, Thompson and Schneider, wrote their own article "Nuclear Winter Reappraised" in Foreign Affairs magazine. They cited some major flaws in the calculations of Sagan's group, and attacked Sagan personally claiming that his politics (he was ardently anti-nuclear well before 1982) had influenced his conclusions. They also highlighted the fact that the Russian scientists mentioned earlier had modified their own nuclear test data, overstating the actual blast effects of the explosions to achieve a more favourable result. Thompson and Schneider went on to propose their own model of climate change concluding that a large scale nuclear exchange would result in a worldwide temperature drop of 20 degrees fahrenheit lasting a matter of weeks, as opposed to the other group's conclusion of a 60 degree fahrenheit drop lasting months to years. End result, no nuclear winter... Just a few chilly (and radioactive) weeks.


 * As for your 50's nuclear technology theory, it's partially right. There is a big difference between the old kiloton range weapons and the multi-megaton thermonuclear weapons of modern times, but it's not quite as simple as you thought. The smaller bombs generally loft larger amounts of material into the air (relative to their size), and that material is also larger in size. Only it's not lofted as high into the atmosphere, and because it's larger it tends to return to earth more quickly. In contrast the massive bombs of today vapourize the materials into much smaller particles, and loft them far higher into the atmosphere.


 * A simple analogy would be like firecrackers and a stick of TNT... As kids a lot of us would have played around with Tom Thumbs or Mighty Mites, blowing stuff up as fast as we could light those little wicks. I know I always used to love sticking them to the sides of (full) milk cartons, and watching the result when they blew a hole in it. Anyway, if you can picture what happens to the carton you'll get my point. The small explosion rips the paper to shreds and scatters it around, whereupon it gets promptly deluged with milk... Now imagine strapping the stick of TNT to a comparable milk carton and setting it off. The milk carton is completely vapourized, along with the milk, the better part of your front yard, and possibly anything below your lower torso depending on how close you were standing. All that material still exists though. You physically can't make matter cease to exist... It's just been broken down so small, and distributed so far that it's impossible to see.


 * It's the same thing on a grander scale with nuclear weapons. The big bombs cause thin, long lived clouds high in the atmosphere, while the small bombs cause thick, short lived clouds in the lower atmosphere. I'm sure you can picture how that would influence climate change respectively.


 * Then of course theres the difference between ground bursts (which a lot of the old bombs would have been) and air bursts, but I figure you've probably had enough already so I'll spare you that... For now.


 * Hope this helped some.


 * TheCaptn.
 * AKA Cappy (to my friends), AKA Mark Ottow.

And Mark was kind enough to respond to a bunch of irritating follow-up questions I had for him, so he wins the patience award, too.

Other contributors include:

Nuclear warfare 1
From Rhombus:


 * Hey!


 * The explanation I've heard to why no nuclear winter occurred in the Fallout world is this.


 * In the 50's they didn't know about it, and since Fallout is retro 50's, it's based on what they thought were the effects of nuclear war the.. a scorched earth with lots of mutated critters..


 * // David (aka Rhombus on the boards)

Cool.

Nuclear warfare 2
David Camacho (remember him from the tribals section?) had this to say about nuking the world...


 * Regarding nuclear warfare, Nikolai Tolstoy (nephew of Leo) hypothsized circa 1980 that the result of a nuclear war would be comparable to the great plagues of Europe. Also, if the Fallout timeline deviated from our timeline prior to the development of the hydrogen bomb, the devastation of the nuclear arsenals would be far lower. Conversely, if the weapons used were predominantly neutron bombs, much of the physcial infrastructure would survive, although the initial radiation burst would kill off most living things in the vicinity of ground zero. As to radiation being a major permanent deterent, people have resettled in areas of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were bombed in the Second World War. On a related note, the level of radiation in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear facilities in Chernobyl has less radiation than what is naturally occuring in Spain and France, it was the radioactive isotopes of Caesium and Iodine that was responsible for the high instances of thyroid cancer in the area. These isotopes, hypothetically, will return to safe levels after twenty years or so. There are a number of people still living in the 'contaminanted' area of Ukraine that was evacuated, and the adults are for the most part healthy, if elderly, and the local animal populations are thriving.


 * And now for my question: Some friends and I have a theory that the rifle pistol in both games is based on the gun Deckard uses in Blade Runner. Are you able to confirm or deny this?

Thanks for the info, David. As for Deckard's gun, I can't find an artist to confirm it, but it looks pretty similar.

Nuclear warfare 3
Robbie Crash throws in his atomic 2 cents...


 * I was just reading the updated bible and came across the nuclear winter question. From what I've read based upon the new threat of possible nuclear war, the idea of nuclear winter has been all but abandoned. I don't have any hard data on it only a half remembered Discovery Channel segment on it.


 * What I do remember is that they said that in order for there to be a nuclear winter every nuke in possession of the USSR and USA at the peak of the cold war would have to be detonated at the same time, and spread out for optimum coverage. In which case nuclear winter would not be a problem as everything on earth would be dead within weeks, if not days.


 * I'll try to dig up some evidence on this and email you a link to it.


 * -Robbie Crash


 * Thirsty and miserable,
 * always wanting more

And follows up with:


 * I just sent you an email about this and here's the link I promised.


 * http://www.ulib.org/webRoot/Books/National_Academy_Press_Books/nuclear_war/war158.htm


 * The gist of it says that there would have to be a huge nuclear exchange for it to happen. It uses half the cold war arsenal as a baseline figure for it. Stating that half makes it possible. As I'm not sure exactly what the extent of the Fallout universes arsenal would have been I can't speculate as to what the possibility of nuclear winter would be. If it were *that* big then that would sure account for the terrain of the Fallout universe.


 * Robbie Crash

Nuclear warfare 4
Vipasnipa says:


 * In the FO Bible 6, you requested that someone with Nuclear Warfare knowledge explain if a nuclear winter would occur. I can tell you with great confidence that it would not. The reason behind this is because the Theory of Nuclear Winter, which was developed in the 50's, was just that, a theory. The idea was examined for a while but almost all leading scientists agreed that a large scale nuclear war could not lift enough dust/dirt/matter to block out the sky and substantially lower global temperatures.


 * The reason why people still believe a nuclear winter could happen is because the Government used it as a ploy to stop Americans from worrying too much about a nuclear war with russia during the 50's and 60's. Why would the Gov't say that? If a nucelar winter were to occur, all life would be lost, so there would be no point to prepare for a nuclear war and lower the Nation's worker efficency in the process (Worrying about the saftey of yourself and family leaves little room for work).


 * I hope this helps and please email me for clarification if any is needed.


 * Vipasnipa, Avid Fallout Fan, ect ect.

Thanks, Vipasnipa.

Who's the big winner? You can be!
Okay, I have a new contest for you Fallout aficionados - the first one to email me at CAvellone@blackisle.com with the correct answer gets to be the BIG WINNER next time. This one may require a little net research and some guessing, but nothing that will cripple you for life.

In any event, the question is... drumroll, please:


 * The Ink Spots' song, Maybe, was not the first choice of theme music for Fallout 1.


 * Rights to the first choice, however, were in dispute, so the first choice was wisely avoided.


 * The first choice song, by the same group, was...?

Interview: giving Scott Bennie the "13"
I'm going to try and start interviewing old members of the Fallout 1 and 2 (and if I'm lucky, Wasteland) development team in future updates.

Scott Bennie is an Interplay veteran who's worked on what seems like five billion computer and pen and paper projects, and wouldn't you know it, the crafty bastard did design work on Fallout 1, too!

I put "the 13" (questions) to him, and here are his answers.

'''1. Introduce yourself. Who the hell are you?'''

Scott Bennie. Veteran (which means "rickity" and "crotchety") game designer. Been doing work on paper RPGs since I sold my first piece to Dragon in 1981, and computer games since 1990. I worked on "Lord of the Rings", "Castles", and nigh everything that had Star Trek on it from Interplay that didn't involve pinball.

Along with Dave Hendee, I constitute the Canadian contingent of the Fallout design team. And when I saw the "Canada annexed" part of the intro, I snickered and said "yeah right," just like every other good, patriotic Canadian Fallout fan. Though I harbor secret ambitions to tell the real tale of what happened in Canada, and to write the history of Dogmeat.

2. How did someone like YOU start working on Fallout?

''Tim Cain asked me, and I had time after one of the various incarnations of Stonekeep II fell through, and I had time between that and Starfleet Academy, so I came onboard and did a few areas and helped where I could. It was fairly late in the project, but I did what I could. I wasn't a major player on the team, but I'm proud I was a part of it.''

3. Yeah, yeah, but what did you do on Fallout?

''I'd worked on parts of the Hub (Jakes's, Locksley, Iguana Bob), the above ground levels of the Cathedral, and wrote some of the "owie, that hurts" messages for weapon damages. I also came up with the Mysterious Stranger perk. Nice idea in theory, though I wish it could have been more useful.''

4. What was you most favorite thing, area, or item that you worked on in Fallout?

''The blackmail storyline at Iguana Bob's. Chris Taylor had set up the whole Iguana Bob buying cannibal chunks earlier in the game, and when I got to Bob's I thought to myself "what if, instead of exposing him, what if you could blackmail Bob instead?" I'd never seen an RPG that had ever allowed you to do that before, so I worked with the scriptors to make it happen. Unfortunately, when I moved off Fallout, the plotline fell off the radar, because the player *should* have been able to report him to the police, but Dave Hendee (who did the Hub Police) was busy with a *lot* of stuff at the time. You know the saying about draining the swamp when you're up to your ass in alligators, well the alligators in the swamp at the end of any computer game project are like Jurassic alligators, so I don't blame Dave if all the quests aren't covered. It would have been nice to have patched it, though.''

5. What was your least favorite thing, area, or item that you worked on in Fallout?

''I was never happy with Locksley. He was just too cutesy in tone. The whole Robin Hood thing struck me as trite, so I think he's probably one of the least memorable major NPCs in either of the games.''

6. Any secrets or background stuff that you've been keeping in your noggin that you want to share?

''Well, there's Dr. Wu, the incredibly over-the-top and obscene doctor at the Cathedral. I had always self-censored myself in my writing before Fallout, but the post holocaust setting struck me as a milleu which *required* high levels of obscenity for its grittiness and dark humor, so I went for the "R" rating with gusto, and I made Wu as the embodiment of all that's obscene. Medics tend to be the one character that even dedicated killer PCs don't kill, so I wanted to see how many people would forego the healing and shoot Wu just because he's such a bastard.''

''Tim Cain *hated* Wu; he thought Wu went too far ("does this guy have Turrette's?") and he asked me to tone him down. I did and handed the revision off to Leonard. However somewhere in the process that Wu revision fell through the cracks, because the one that's in the game is the original unpurigated, unfettered Wu.''

''I almost regret not doing more with the Cathedral, but I did my best not to throw in side quests because I thought at that time the player would be pretty much streaking for the endgame and any quests at this point would be more annoying than useful. There's a time for speed bumps, and there's a time when you have to let them cut loose. So the Cathedral's mostly for color. I tried to come up with a few NPCs there who weren't despicable; I thought it'd be more interesting if the cult attracted a few people who weren't stupid and thuggishly evil. That way, they'd contrast better with people like Morpheus (whose dialogue was written before I came on the project) who *was* an opportunistic scumball.''

7. Was there anything you created that didn't make it in?

''Secret of Vulcan Fury? Ooops, wrong interview. How come none of those Star Trek bastards never ever want to talk to me?''

''Tim Cain asked me to write a game intro, so I wrote this rambling piece where some half-crazed fellow was ranting about his ancestors and cursing what had happened to the world - what it must have been like to live in a world where brahmin had only one head. What actually went into the game was *much* better ("War Never Changes"), but Tim wanted to stick some drunken barfly somewhere in the game which spouted the original dialogue. It never happened though, and the dialogue's been long lost.''

8. Any personal stories you want to share from the development process?

''While there's the cruel memory of Tim Cain tormenting me with chocolate chip cookies, because I'm diabetic. (I ate some anyways. Cookies, num...)''

''Then there's the one where I screwed up the formatting on a big section of dialogue and Tim got really mad at me... no, I don't think I want to remember that one...''

''I'm a bit of a method writer, and when I wrote the Cathedral Cultists, I frightened some of my co-workers by getting into character and telling people how reasonable the Master and his dream was, and how Fallout isn't a heroic story at all, it's the tragedy about the fall of the Master who was ruthlessly murdered by people he was just trying to help but who are (sob!)too willful to accept change. No one bought my interpretation. (That alone is a tragedy.)''

''Then there's the story of T. Ray, the waiters, and the waterglasses at Club 33, where we went for the Fallout wrap party. But Mark Harrison will probably kill me just for mentioning it, so I'd better shut up now.''

9. If you had one inventory item from Fallout, what would it be?

I don't know about inventory items (maybe a G.E.C.K.) but I'd love a small dog who's brave enough to bite a Deathclaw in the leg on command and not shoot me in the back ("hi, Ian!")

'''10. What are you doing now? What are your hopes and dreams for the future?'''

''I'm doing some computer game and paper RPG writing. It looks like I'll have a d20 system supplement out from Green Ronin next Spring, and a Champions campaign setting from Hero Games next summer. Please buy them both. Make me both rich and happy.''

As for dreams, I really should get off my butt and at least try to write a novel.

11. What question do you wish you had been asked about Fallout that wasn't in this list of questions?

''"How good are Tim Cain and Chris Taylor?" I suppose it's obvious, but they're damn good. They made a game and had the balls to try things - story and system wise - that I didn't think were possible, and they made them work. It's a huge achievement.''

12. If you had one wish, what would it be?

I wouldn't know where to start.

13. Is there anything you've ever wanted to say in an interview that you've never had the chance to say?

''Interview? People actually want to talk to me? Wow.''

A few questions
Here are some questions and some answers. If I didn't answer yours, it's pending, so enough with the bitching, you pansy-ass whiner.

Are you sure Necropolis is Bakersfield?
Theodor had some questions about geography:

It's been a while that I played Fallout, so I hope I get this right.

'''1. Necropolis is supposed to be Bakersfield. But Bakersfield is NNW from L.A. On the Fallout map, it would probably be on the third square south of the Brotherhood. The only real-life location corresponding to Necropolis now would be a small town called Baker, at the Soda Lake.'''

'''2. Killian clearly states that Necropolis is south of Junktown, the Hub to the south-west. It was obviously the idea that Necropolis would be on the way to the Boneyard.'''

'''3. Either Ian or the singer in the Skumpitt gives you directions in relation to the coastline. They do not match the map at all, and put the Hub far nearer to the coast than it now is.'''

My personal conclusions were that the dialog was written long before the map was drawn, and later never changed; and that terrain difficulties originally were supposed to have a far greater importance in gameplay, hence the stress on travelling along the coast.

Well, it seems I actually was the only one who ever noticed it.

I think the locations may have been moved at a later date to spread them out better along the map. Necropolis is supposed to be Bakersfield, but I'll see if I can check with Chris Taylor to make sure.

You're not the only one to notice this, however, the deadly DJ Slamák noticed it, too (possibly from a post you made on the BIS boards, if you're Bertcom):


 * DJ says: There's a certain discrepancy I'm wondering about. In Fallout 1, the Vault-Tec Vault Locations holodisc mentions three Vaults - Nos. 12, 13, and 15. Vault 12 is supposedly located under the city of Bakersfield. The Master's Vault in LA is definitely not it, and the only other "candidate" is the Vault in Necropolis. The ruins of Necropolis look pretty big on the world map, too. Therefore, we can assume that Necropolis = Bakersfield.


 * However, as suggested by one BIS forum user (Ed: Which may have been you, Theodor), while Necropolis lies to the Northeast of Los Angeles, the actual city of Bakersfield is not far to the Southwest of the BOS Bunker (which is not a Vault, it's a military bunker, as suggested by Captain Maxson's log). The location of Necropolis roughly matches the town of Barstow.


 * Therefore, I'd like to ask, IS the Necropolis Bakersfield? And if it is, why was it moved? Otherwise, why is Vault 12 "off-screen" and we get to see two other Vaults, which are not mentioned in the brochure, instead?


 * Also, If you keep on playing F2 after destroying the Enclave, the arms dealer in New Reno will offer you "special prices" which are actually tenfold or more and increase each time you address him, and will attack you if you ask for modifications. That seems a bit weird for a bug, is it supposed to be some sort of joke?

It's probably a bug. I know, I know, big surprise.

BoS corrections
Sebastian Rushworth (the author of the pen-and-paper Brotherhood of Steel sourcebook, BTW - check it out at http://www.iamapsycho.com/fallout/index.htm) had some comments on my Brotherhood of Steel summary from Bible #6 (thanks, Sebastian).


 * Thanks for the latest installment of the Fallout Bible, I had a great time reading through it. I just thought I'd make you aware of a few mistakes I found in the BOS section. I'll go through them in the order you wrote them down (If I've misunderstood something feel free to correct me :)


 * 1. Brotherhood installations (Paragraph 4). The outposts in Fallout 2 aren't proper brotherhood installations, they're purely used for gathering information on the Enclave (Why there is only one brother at each outpost), and I think the chosen one is told this on speaking to the BOS character in San Francisco. As far as I can make out, the Brotherhood is still centralised around the Lost Hills bunker even in Fallout 2.


 * 2. Paladins (paragraph 5). The rank of Paladin isn't to do with seniority. The paladins are the brotherhood's elite soldiers, and are a separate class from the knights, in the same way as the scribes. In Fallout 1, when you speak to one of the brothers in the BOS bunker, he tells you something along the lines that the scribes develop technology, the knights build it, and the paladins use it.


 * 3. Elders (paragraph 5). Becoming an elder isn't a rank that is reached automatically as a result of seniority since there are only four elders (and one high elder) at any one time (Fallout 1). For this reason the elders must be elected in some way, though how is never made clear. Just being old doesn't guarantee being an elder ;)


 * 4. You're right; squires are an invention of Fallout tactics.


 * By the way, I don't think the brotherhood really hates mutants just by virtue of being mutants (after all, they are the most enlightened people in the wasteland). I think it's got more to do with the fact that the mutants tried to destroy humanity ;)

Thanks again, Sebastien. My takes on the BOS were:

Brotherhood Installations: Understood - didn't mean to imply those posts were full-on outposts. The installations and bunkers I mentioned are elsewhere.

Paladins and Elders: Well, I couldn't find anything definite on this, so I asked Dave Hendee, who designed the BOS:


 * 1. Are the High Elders/Elders in the BOS council "elected," or are they just paladins that happen to become too old?


 * Dave Sayz: Elected or chosen by the elders, don't recall which, but I don't think specifics were mentioned anywhere so you can do whatever you want I'm sure without running into an inconsistency that the players might find.

Sebastien - my take is that they're paladins elected to the council, but in the Maxson line, they elevated mostly because of seniority. You're right - the limited number of council members would preclude becoming an Elder because of seniority only - though you could also argue that BOS members don't usually live to get "old."


 * 2. When you're first talking to "Jerry the Mouth," he asks if you are an Initiate Knight or Initiate Scribe, but he doesn't ask if you're an Initiate Paladin. Do you need to be a Knight before you can become a Paladin?


 * Dave Sayz: Yes, Knight before you can become a Paladin. Becoming a paladin is special.

My take on this is that the Brotherhood would want you to know everything about maintaining your equipment inside and out before becoming a Paladin. It would fit in with their technology-worshipping culture. Knights still see combat, however, and even go on patrols.

Dislike of Mutants: Their dislike of mutants has mostly to do with the BOS' position on the Fallout world map (Lost Hills' proximity to the Military Base which has spawned a crapload of mutants, and not just the Master's super mutants) and their military psychology (if you are cooped up in a bunker for, oh, 80+ years, you really need an enemy to focus your attention on, or you'll start fighting amongst yourselves). It doesn't hurt that most mutants look butt-ugly and are (mostly) blood-thirsty slavering beasts.

Ghouls are a different matter. BOS contact with ghouls (around the times of F2) has been limited, but negative - it's difficult for the BOS to respect a stumbling crew of emaciated scavengers that tend to dismantle or FUBAR old world technology. BOS' anger grew even further when various salvaging operations began in the Glow (a location which the BOS came to regard highly both for their fallen comrades and the Pre-War technology there) with ghouls at the forefront. Most BOS members see ghouls as filthy scavengers.

...And the horse you rode in on
Sean P had some questions.

I have some questions regarding the Fallout universe, which probably has little relevence to the games themselves, but nonetheless sparked my curiosity nonetheless. Feel free to ignore them.

1)Did horses (in any form) survive the Great War, within the area of California? Arguably, I imagine that if they did, horses would begin to replace cars as the main mode of distance transportation.

Nope. Some mules did (the poor mule killed by the raiders in F1), but not for long. Besides, I think that mule was a discrepancy.

2) Assuming that horses did not survive the great War, can Centaurs be tamed? One would think that the surviving human communities would try to use the radiated animals and their increased bulk to help them move cargo, as the lack of vehicles or roads for vehicles is apparent.

I think Centaurs would be far too vicious to tame. I mean, they're a mish-mash of humans and dogs (at least), and they can't be very comfortable with how they've been, uh, mashed together.

You could, however, create a variety of Day of the Dead-style adventure seeds of someone trying to tame a Centaur, but with less... successful... results than Dr. Frankenstein did in Day of the Dead.

3)This is more of an engine question than a background question. How exactly does AC determine to-hit of an enemy? Right now, I'm playing a game and trying to build a melee monster(ironically, unarmed combat seems to be more effective than melee weaponry). Now, assume that my character(Let's call him Lil' Jesus) runs out to an Enclave trooper and initiates combat.

Lil' Jesus has 51 AC, but the Enclave Trooper has a default chance of 160% to hit him with a plasma shot. Would the to-hit of the Enclave Trooper be determined:

a)Enclave Trooper has 160% to-hit Lil' Jesus, which is then rounded down to 95%. This 95% is further reduced by 51%, so he will actually hit only 44% of the time.

or

b)Enclave Trooper has 160% to-hit, which is reduced by 51%, making the Enclave Trooper's to-hit against Lil' Jesus "down" to 95%.

B is the correct answer, as I understand it. Pumping your stats above 100 is intended to help offset distance penalties, lighting penalties, and opponents with a really high AC.

If its the latter, where can I buy a good funeral for the melee lovers of Fallout?

Go to Redding.

4)This is related to the third question, but were there any plans for more melee weapons or melee-specific perks in the game?

Well, Fallout 1 and 2 are done already, so no. If we ever did a sequel, I don't know. Probably.

5)About the NPC party members. Was there any further plans to deveop the character of the party members further? I notice that the early party(Vic and Sulik) members get more development than the later ones(Cassidy, Marcus), etc.

Nope. Pretty much what was in the game for them is what was planned. I know I didn't want to do anything more with Cassidy because sometimes you ruin a character if you develop him too much (Myron).

6)Finally, is it against the game engine for NPCs to develop "perks" or special abilities? One thing that I always hoped for was that Sulik might get a version of HTH dodge, or that Marcus might find the metal armor of the Lieutenant in the Maripol Millitary Base(Going in naked against the Enclave Derrik is too hot for him).

I think that would have been cool. It's not really against the game engine, but we just didn't put that stuff in.

Raccoons
Here's a concept of the Burrows Raccoons from last time. Oh, and some old Khan tire armor. Rharrr!

Just desert
Spawn_NER wants to know what's up with all those deserts.

'''Hello. One question realy pisses me off... Fallout2 is a "GURPS post nuclear adventure", but after nuclear war there must be global winter and very cold... and in Fallout there are desert everywhere.'''

Actually, based on feedback I've gotten, I don't think the world of Fallout had a nuclear winter. It's part of the genre - miles upon miles of scorched earth, inhabited by slathering, bloodthirsty mutants

Why is the Fallout world all funny-looking?
Rob had a comment:

'''Firstly i think that your site is great and i really enjoy playing the fallout games. the reason for the e-mail is to find out when the war happened and why the cars and buildings look weird? I understand that the war was ment to have happened in the future but if so why are people dressed in 50's stuff and doing 50's things?'''

Hey, Rob - the basic theme of the Fallout games is that the world of 2077 had a retro-50s feel when the nukes dropped - sort of a "what people in the 50s imagined the future (and post-holocaust future) would be like." This theme translates into the "look" and the actual physics of the world (Torg-style, if you've ever played Torg) - so anyway, you get giant radioactive monsters, pulp science with lasers, blasters, vacuum tubes, big expensive cars with fins, Art Deco architecture, robots with brains in domes atop their heads, lots of tape reel computer machines, the whole "atomic horror" feel, and it explains the artistic style of the interface.

So there you go.

From 13 to 31 madness
Pawel/Paul Kranzberg sent me 31 questions, of which I chose to tackle 8 (notice a theme?) of them:

Just like you, I earned money by working on Fallout :) I translated about 70% of F1 texts for the local distributor in Poland - you know, a part of Russia, where the local Russians are using Latin alphabet instead of Cyrillic (feel free to quote me on that whenever you want to piss some Polish moro... I mean 'patriots' off - I'm of German origin, so my judgment is impartial ;-). I know the game pretty well, but nevertheless have some questions about it.

1. I guess that's a rhetorical question, but in creating Fallout were you guys directly inspired by those kick-ass 1950s educational movies like 'Duck and Cover', 'Survival Under Atomic Attack', 'Atomic Alert' and of course 'About Fallout' (downloadable from http://webdev.archive.org/movies/prelinger.php )?

2. Is it possible to play roulette or craps in F1?

3. Was Vault 13 located under Mt Whitney?

4. What's the location of Vault 69?

'''5. Those holo-somethings, are they actually tapes or disks? They do look like tapes...'''

'''6. Is Fallout in the same universe/timeline as Wasteland (as the presence of Tycho suggests)? If so, why are the ruins to the SE of Vault 15, which I assume to be the remnants of Las Vegas, deserted?'''

16. Why does Dr Wu swear so much (at least for a Child of the Cathedral)?

'''29. Since Necropolis is Bakersfield, how come it's to the NE of L.A. and not to the NW? Don't you Yanks know that in the spot where you placed Neropolis there are only some holes called Baker and Crucero, and the real Bakersfield lies near the Lost Hill(s) Brotherhood Citadel?'''

I'll try to answer your questions piece-meal over the next few weeks, but here's some quick answers:

1. As I understand it, the feel of the game was very much inspired by those educational movies.

2. I don't believe so, but I didn't do much gambling in F1 so I could be wrong. I know that Chris Holland, one of the programmers in F2, loved craps and roulette, so he scripted the gaming tables so you could do it.

3. I don't know. I don't think so - but I'll ask the creators. If any of the creators of F1 read this and know the answer, feel free to email me.

4. I'll never tell. :) To be honest, there probably won't be answer unless that specific Vault is actually placed in a future title.

5. Well, according to Vree, they are "high-density, laser-readable, manufactured-crystal storage devices. Each one holds over 4,000 gigabytes of information." I would prefer them to be tapes, but I'm not sure if you can read tapes via lasers. They are alternately called holodisks and holotapes throughout Fallout 1 (and at least once it's called a "holodisc tape"), and they all share the same graphic, so I'd go with tapes, since those are more 1950-ish.

6. No. If it shared the same universe and timeline, then we probably would have leaped at the chance to do Wasteland 2.

16. See Scott Bennie's interview earlier/later on in this update. It should answer your questions about the nefarious Dr. Wu!

29. Apparently some don't. See the answer elsewhere in this exciting update. Man, this question started rearing its head all over the place.

More answers to come. Maybe.

What's up with the car's fat ass?
Petruschka asks why the Fallout 2 car used to have a fat ass:

Note: The screenshot above is an old one, when the car, well, had a fat ass.

Matt Norton, lead designer for Fallout 2, says:
 * The car was originally going to be powered by fusion or fission or something nifty and nuclear (something that would allow us not to have to worry about running out of gas) and those big tanks in the back were representative of this big bulky power-source that was bolted on to the back of a '57 Chevy.


 * We had thought, at one starry-eyed point, that the car would be something that you could upgrade with more speed, armor, weapons, etc. and that it could be a more important part of the game-well, the engine and programmer tasking weren't up to the idea of having a moving vehicle (madness, I know ;) in the game so all of that went out the window. The power source was replaced by a much more mundane 22 cubic feet of cargo-space (more than any non-wagon vehicle in its class!).


 * So basically, the Highwayman's powerplant was downsized in order to meet with People's State of California emissions standards. It's often the case that a prototype car isn't exactly the same when it goes into production. ;)

Then Petruschka has an alternate answer to his own question:

'''Thanks for your answers. Just wanted to clear that rocket booster on the place of the car trunk "mystery." Our reader and contributor Jay Kowalski discovered some pictures of the Mad Max car Interceptor with the same kind of fuell tanks:'''

http://www.madmaxmovies.com/cars/interceptor/images/max2.jpg

http://madbrahmin.bonusweb.cz/ruzne/clanky/prispevky/obrazky/cots2.jpg

So it was probably removed from the Fallout game because of some copyright issues or maybe just because the player would be deprived of the storeroom/car trunk.

'''So there you go... or sumthing - petruschka '''

What the hell are these items?
DJ Slamák had some questions:

Would you happen to know (or at least be able to dig up) anything about these items from Fallout? -- Tangler's Hand (FO1, item no. 114) -- Field Switch (FO1, item no. 222) -- Smith's Cool Item (FO2, item no. 264) -- Trophy of Recognition (FO2, item no. 275)

Thanks.

The guilty pieces of art are:

Smith's Cool Item is not listed, because it's just a blue box.

According to Tim Cain on Tangler's Hand and Field Switch:


 * "I am pretty sure that both of these items were part of deleted quests. Tangler's Hand was used to prove that you killed someone (duh, Tangler probably), and I think it was in Adytum, which was heavily modified near the end of FO's development. I am even less clear on the field switch, but I remember we had lots of discussion on how to handle the player bringing down the force fields in the Military Base, so it was probably going to be used for that, but then got tossed aside when another solution was used.


 * Mr. Taylor may remember these better than I.


 * Tim."

According to Chris Taylor on Tangler's Hand and Field Switch:


 * "Tim sounds right on the money.


 * Those fields bit the tuber.


 * pax,
 * -Chris"

As for me, the only one I (Chris A) know off the top of my head is "Smith's Cool Item." During the development of Vault City, Feargus had determined that a result of helping Farmer Smith in the VC Courtyard, a player was to get, quote, a "cool item." Now the nature of this item was never locked down, so we made a placeholder for it to make sure the quest worked. Toward the end of the cycle, when requesting more art and more items became a laughably bad idea, we switched Smith's cool item for a Desert Eagle, but left the inventory item in the list.

No one knows what the Trophy of Recognition was for, although I'll make a guess that it someone's joke at Dave Hendee's expense, since we all got points on the white board for each time we were able to make him burst out into tears.

Questions from Romania!
I'll let the next fellow introduce himself:

'''HelloMy name is Butnariu Catalin, I'm from Romania and I'm a big fan of Fallout. The reason I'm writting is I have a question about Fallout 2: in Arroyo, in the area where you go to find the dog, there is a big rock and if you look at it it says it is not of natural occurence. I tried to blow it up with dynamite but it didn't help. I didn't find anything about this in any walkthrough. Does it serve a purpose or was it just meant to make me curious?'''

The danger of re-using art from Fallout 1 is that sometimes the item and scenery descriptions will hang around on pieces of art that otherwise seem like they belong. I'm guessing that that rockfall was the same piece of art used at the beginning of the radscorpion caves in Fallout 1. It happens with other pieces of art in F2, too.

Questions from the Czech Republic!
Petruschka has allied himself with the forces of darkness to send the following questions (also, he apologizes for his English - and I don't think he realizes this, but it tends to be a hell of a lot better than a lot of emails that end up in my mailbox).

'''I am an editor from one of the biggest Fallout sites in Czech Republic http://madbrahmin.bonusweb.cz (which means not much, if you consider the size of our country... IF you know Czech rep. anyway). Just a little reminder - I was asking you for the blessing for translation of the Fallout Bible (which is hell a lot of hard but enjoyable work) few months ago.'''

One of our readers - Jay Kowalski - was playing around with the Fallout 2 files and discovered few interesting titbits:

'''1. In the \data\party.txt and \text\english\game\MISC.MSG was a record with 25 party members including Maria (older version of Miria?), a guy called McRae (Cassidy?), Doc (?), Chicken (?), Karl (that old wino from Den?) and even CarTrunk (what the heck?). The question is: are some of these unused party members or just older alter egos of the present party?'''

1. Maria: Not sure. She could have been an older version of Miria, I think.

McRae used to be Cassidy. (See the answers to other questions elsewhere in this exciting issue!)

Doc: Don't know.

The Chicken was the NPC that was supposed to hatch out of the easter egg.

Karl: I don't know.

Trunk: I don't know. It was probably set up as an NPC so it could follow the player around and have an inventory, but I don't know for sure.

2. Another mystery - what should mean this picture (mapper2.lbm) from the \data file:\

It looks like some kind of long forgoten developers editor tool. Say... couldnt it be possible to release this sweet baby for the public use? OK - this was probably a naive question but the hope never dies, you know...

I asked one of our programmers, Chris Jones, and he says:
 * Chris Jones: #2 is the art that mapper uses for its interface stuff. It was all just stored in one .lbm like that, and the coordinates of each part were hard coded in the mapper source code.

Chris is the one working on getting the editors ready to be released. He is doing it on his own time, so please send him money if you can.

3. Another one: these video names are from the naming.txt file but are not in the master.dat:

timeout.mve - including this picture:

That is the "movie" that appears after you've played the game for a crapload of years (game time - 13 years, I think). There needed to be some "cut off" point for programming reasons.


 * adestroy.mve - Arroyo Destroyed with Dying Hakunin?

What it says - nothing remarkable. .


 * car.mve - Starting the car?

They wanted a movie for when you started the car. Vrroom. Vrrroom.

This movie was actually done, but it ended up being so shitty, we cut it. Or to quote Scott Everts:


 * According to Scotty Everts: As I remember the "car.mve" was actually done but turned out so bad that we dumped it.


 * cartucci.mve - Family Cartucci dealing with Enclave?

That's the movie for the vertibird & Salvatore meeting outside of Reno. Cartucci was Tim Cain's old name for the Salvatores, I think. We decided the event didn't need a movie, and a "cut scene" would work.


 * dethclaw.mve - Seeing the DeathClaw leader?

There was supposed to be a Deathclaw boss in V13 in the original design, but it was scrapped.


 * enclave.mve - Prisoners in Enclave escaping to tanker?

Just what it says - we just ended up not doing it.

'''4. And the last one is - Why is the Hubologists base in some files called the Elronologists base? I don't know - it's maybe some kind of "US only" joke, but could you please make it clear for the rest of the non english speaking world? I know about the Hubologist = Scientologists thingie (OK-OK - to be politically correct - Hubologist ? Scientologists ...of course not ...oh where is the free hippie spirit of the USA? :) So, who or what are the Elronologists?'''

You might think that the Elronologists were the original name for the Hubologists, but any relationship between the groups is purely coincidental.

Those silly Cartuccis!
Neli writes:

'''i found a .txt file in the master.dat file and theres a line "Cartucci family dealing with Enclave", any ideas what is cartucci family. I think that was suppose to be a movie clip, but it was left out of the game.'''

Cartucci was the old name for the Salvatores in New Reno. There was supposed to be a movie of them dealing with the Enclave (mentioned above in "Questions from the Czech Republic").

And now... Mariano
Mariano writes:

'''1 I dunno if it is a bug of my comp (I don't think so) but in the shi palace when I go in the northen lab and "use" a comp they tell me I'm fucking lucky and then I got only 1 dialog option : - more when I click on it it simply takes me back to the upper view. What does it normally do? and what can be really done whith the comps of the shi ?'''

If I recall correctly, if you have a high Luck (8 or higher, I believe), you have a chance of guessing the password. It depends on the computer you're using (the Biology computer and the Physics computer seem to check this).

2 the guy who said the comp of the sierra a. b. (2Â° level) did not turn of the force fields is right it disables the shock plates instead (hate that).

Got it.

'''3 I got a horible bug with lynette she will never give me the westin holod. and even if I transform an item into the disk using a trainer Westin doesn't take it (no dialog option) what can I do? (I don't play whith the CD I use Huge install Is that the reason?) I really want to finish this quest to see if gecko & VC will be saved ( I think it's the biggest hidden quest of the game)'''

Are you sure it's a bug? In order to complete the quest, you can't just make the item, since it checks states in the game, too. You need to:

a. You need to find and defeat the raiders. b. Find the account books in the raiders safe. Now here's the trick - the account book by themselves only mean that Bishop hired the raiders, they don't say *why.* c. You need to open Bishop's safe on the top floor of the Shark Club and get the holodisk there, then bring that back to Lynette. d. Once she has all these items (and you should be able to present her with this stuff incrementally, not all at once), ask her if there's anything more you can do to help, and she'll tell you to take a holodisk to Westin.

Now, when I played it last, I had defeated the raiders, found the account books, and got the holodisk from Bishop's safe and presented her with them all at once, and the quest worked. So let me know how it goes. Just hacking the item isn't enough, though, the game has some internal checks to check the stages of the quest.

4 are there very difficul pearks to find VC innoculations was really well hidden I got reaaly luky when that radscorp hit me.

Vault City Innoculations is one, there's the Shit Shoveler perk in Broken Hills, the Gecko Skinning perk in Klamath, and I believe, Vault City Medical Training in VC as well (hey, doctors needed something good in the game). If you want, you can post the question on www.blackisle.com, and I guarantee someone will give you a full rundown within an hour, along with details about how to get each one.

One extra perk: If I recall correctly (and my dialogue file for Dr. Troy is corrupted, unfortunately), once you are Captain of the Guard in VC, you should be able to get Marcus into the Auto-Doc at Vault City.

When you do:


 * Dr. Troy: "My, your mutant friend had a great deal of bullets and shrapnel lodged in his body. It's a wonder he didn't have lead poisoning. I finally managed to get it all out. Here it all is."

...and he'll give you a shitload of ammo.

5. I'm trying an evil carracter is it possible to alliate with the raders?

No, although it is possible to ally with Bishop.

why are there no coakroak in the game they are the most powerful survivalists of the world since the dawn of time...

We didn't do cockroaches, I don't know why. Probably time.

more personnaly What are your favorite pearks?

I am deeply in love with the Empathy perk, even though it's not used consistently. I wish there had been more perks like that, but Empathy was kind of a pain in the ass to implement.

FEV is the answer
Peter Hopkins asks:

'''I was reading version 5 of the Bible, and found a bit of a conflict with current knowledge... In one of your anwers, it was said that it was random whether the FEV increased intelligence or not. However, as far as I know, FEV increases the growth and integrity of ALL cells consistently, by doubling the amount of genetic material in the cells. In this case, an increase in brain size (assuming a healthy brain to begin with) and intelligence should be regular. Another theory could be that, as the mutant's brain grows, the mass of the mutant's body increases exponentionally and the brain would not be big enough to control the whole body and sustain the throught process of a human body. Also, it is possible that while intelligence does increase initially, the brain does not gain the resistance to radiation that the body does, and the mutant develops brain damage and shows reduced intelligence. Are any of the above true? PS There is a very good report documenting the effects of FEV and how it was developed on the No Mutants Allowed message board (www.nma-fallout.com). PPS I don't know about any so called 'purists', but i am hugely interested in the fallout world and would love to FOT background in the Bible.'''

About FEV:

That might be why some of the super mutants (such as the Lieutenant) are smart (or remain smart) - but generally, for some reason (I don't know off the top of my head, nor do I know if it's spelled out anywhere), they're about 30% dumber than a normal human being, if Vree's research disk in the Brotherhood of Steel is accurate. I wouldn't be surprised if the dipping process caused brain damage in dipped subjects - it's a hell of a shock to the system.

Furthermore, everyone's favorite introspective machine intelligence, Zax, has the following to say about it:


 * When inoculated into an individual with significant genetic damage, such as through radiation, it [FEV] will cause the body's systems to suffer massive overhauling, leading to organ failure and death. In a genetically viable individual, it re-writes portions of DNA, causing accelerated mutation, usually leading to recursive growth due to the FEV's own patterns. This recursive growth leads to an increase in muscle and brain mass, but is often accompanied by disfigurement and damage to existing neural patterns, causing loss of memory.

Other possible factors that might be causing the super mutants' stupidness:

- Most mutants have some degree of radiation poisoning, which may cause problems and brain damage, as mentioned above.

- The process is unsafe - the mortality rate on "dippees" is pretty high. This is likely due to radiation poisoning.

- Memory functions are "sometimes" impaired by the dipping, and intelligence loss may occur as well. Harold's memory wasn't in the best of shape after exposure.

From the Pre-War experiment tapes, it looks like some mammals did display consistent increased intelligence (raccoons), while others didn't (the dogs) or even suffered brain damage (the chimps and the seizures). However, in an old Scott Campbell doc, there was a note that later subjects injected with the FEV (especially the chimps) hid their enhanced intelligence from their captors (or in the case of the raccoons, made a break for it).

Furthermore, the FEV tests at West-Tek were done through injection, not dipping, so it's possible the dipping process itself that causes the brain damage. Possibly with the increased brain mass in the skull, the brain is "squeezed," and all that tasty juice runs out the ears.

Still, on the other hand, a lot of the animals Grey talks about in his experiment tapes that were running around the Military Base were getting smarter from the FEV, and he himself became supra-intelligent.

So there's a long-winded series of random answers. Moving on!

Whoa, Neli!
'''Neli writes:

I am probably missing something obvious, but I still havent figured out what happened to the Enclave base at Navarro, is it still there with a few Vertybirds and (if you didn't kill them) a bunch of Enclave troops, who are figuring out a new plan how to free the world from mutants?

No one knows what happened to Navarro after Fallout 2 - with the destruction of the Enclave, the base may not have been able to maintain itself for more than a few months before needing to move on or change its operations.

Marcin, Marcin
Marcin has more questions:

Hello I have some questions about Fallout especial Fallout Tactics I now that BlacIsle did't create FOT but the history must be the same

'''1. The BOS!!! Are the old Brothehood is this brotherhood from F1 or in FOT is new history and have no connection to F1 and F2?'''

'''1a. If the history are the same then why the Vault Dweller or Chosen One did't go to Vault 0 after all this was a Super Vault for sure their have more Water Chip's or more GECK's?'''

2. Are you really aren't produce F3 (in net all fans of Fallout are talking that in F3 will be 3D engine zooming rotating)or you just don't want to sey about it but if it's true I can do only one I'M BEAGING ALL INTERPLAY BLACK ISLE START WORKING ON NEXT PART OF THIS MAGNIFICENT GAME

'''2a. I have idea why history in F3 will have connection for all Fallout game ( F1,F2,FOT) I mean place all city's from all Fallout's (I know that is very much work but all city's + some new will be this what all fans expected from Fallout 3 )'''

I know now you think ah next sucker for colection but I'm just wirte what i fell and don't think that I'm only played FOT I've played all of Fallot part and I finish it more the 5 time now i have request can you answer on my e -mail

Actually, the FOT and the FO history/world physics aren't the same - there were discrepancies, especially with regards to some Vault theories and the deathclaws, but that pretty much puts it on the same level as Fallout 2. But let me try to answer your questions:

1. The BOS in FOT are a splinter group of malcontents from FO1, I believe.

1a. The Vault Dweller only knew about Vault 15; he didn't know about Vault Zero, and neither did anyone in FO2. It's kind of like how no one in F1 knew about the mysterious organization known as the "Enclave."

2. See Fallout Bible #6 for the answer to this question.

3. That would make a VERY big game; I don't know if that would be possible.

Prompts>_?
Per Jorner asks:

'''All these were prompted by instalment No. 6, the latest one. If I'd known from the start that you'd put my questions in the update, I'd have made them smarter. :)'''

To everyone: If anyone ever doesn't want your questions in, let me know. Chances are, I'll publish it anyway.


 * In the "Pie in the face" section a timeline entry mentions "Lydia, the head of the 'return to the surface' faction" and her supporters, "Therese" and Lyle. In F1 TheresA is the head of the rebel faction, Lyle is not identified as a rebel, and there's no one named Lydia. I suppose she could have orchestrated the whole thing from inside a locker or something.

 Thanks for the feedback, I stand corrected - and thanks for the heads-up. I think I referenced an old walkthrough to get their names right. Or am just getting senile.


 * I like the phrase "Vault 13 refugees from Vault 13". :)


 * The fact that you never found out where Ed got the Vault 13 flasks is something I've been wondering about, and then I mean in a game design sense as opposed to a game world sense. The whole "Vic thread" starts in Arroyo, but in Vault City it just dies, although you do get a lot of other towns on your world map in the process so that you can continue exploring. Was there never an intention of having one uninterrupted thread of clues and connections leading through the entire game for those who wanted to follow it?

Basically, the gist of clues was:
 * Water Flask from Vic in Klamath.
 * Go to Klamath, find out Vic is in Den.
 * Go to Den, rescue Vic, discover he got flask from Ed.
 * Go to Vault City, find Ed, find what you think is the Vault. From there, you realize:

a. Maybe it's V13. b. Realize it's not V13, but it might have clues to V13.


 * Go to Gecko in order to get into VC Vault.
 * Go back to Vault City. Get into computer room.
 * The computer room identifies V15.
 * Go to V15. This puts the player so close to NCR that chances are, they will explore NCR, too.
 * From NCR + V15, there's a bunch of ways to find V13.

I guess it may not seem obvious, but yeah, there was a plan. Also, you're right, you're not forced to do this. You can choose never to bring the GECK back to Arroyo for the whole game, and that was intentional - it's not very Fallout to force the player to do things in a certain order. Torment was just a different experience, and it was much more story-exploration-focused than world-exploration-focused.


 * For some reason I liked your mention of the steam trucks from F1. They've puzzled me a bit since that was the only mention of vehicle technology anywhere in F1 as far as I know, and it was odd that a bigger deal wasn't made of the fact that the super mutant army actually had them. You'd only ever hear about them if you found that ghoul refugee behind the bookcase.

It may have been embarrassing for them to mention it. It may have been a very ugly-looking vehicle.

They probably didn't make a big deal of it for art reasons and gameplay reasons. ("Where's the steam truck?! I want to drive it!")


 * Another possible pie in the face... Ian was supposed to be in the Abbey, right? Or was he momentarily moved to the Den after the Abbey was scrapped?

Ian was actually slated for the Abbey and the Den that I know of, but something that Ausir (I think) pointed out, he was actually in Vault City before he was cut from the game. Man, that old fuck Ian sure gets around when he's not blowing holes in you with his SMG. Thanks to Ausir for "Old Joe..."


 * "OLD JOE"
 * {100}{}{You see an old man with a crazy gleam in his eye.}
 * {101}{}{You see Old Joe, the local idiot savant.}
 * {102}{}{Hello. Haven't seen you in a while.}
 * {103}{}{Do I know you?}
 * {104}{}{Ah, yeah. It's been a while. What have you been doing?}
 * {105}{}{Well, it has been a while. What have you been up to?}
 * {106}{}{This and that. Where do you know me from?}
 * {107}{}{Look, old man, I don't know who the hell you are.}
 * {108}{}{Sure has. Well, I've been around; finally ended up here in this god-forsaken place. Not like the good old days. No sir.}
 * {109}{}{Yeah, the good old days. Remember that time we...}
 * {110}{}{It hasn't been the same lately, that's for sure. Now... what did we do together?}
 * {111}{}{Don't remember me, do you? Well, you do seem to be a bit young.}
 * {112}{}{What are you trying to tell me?}
 * {113}{}{You look so familiar, though. Ah, must be my old eyes. Well, good day to you.}
 * {114}{}{Uh, yeah... goodbye.}
 * {115}{}{Yeah, we sure gave the Master hell, didn't we? Shit fell apart after you left, though. Had to move around and change my name. Where'd you end up?}
 * {116}{}{I've been living up in a small village.}
 * {117}{}{Well, you better be careful around here. Things ain't as clear as they once were. You best watch your back.}
 * {118}{}{Okay, thanks.}
 * {119}{}{Yeah, I looked for your Vault for a while, but never found it. So you got any good stories for your old friend Ian?}
 * {120}{}{Ian?}
 * {121}{}{Yeah, Ian. Don't you remember me? It's been a bunch of years. You'd think someone wouldn't forget his best buddy. Well... except for the shooting in the back thing. Sorry about that again.}
 * {122}{}{I am sorry, but you must think I am the Vault Dweller. My village was founded by the one who came from the Vault.}
 * {123}{}{Well, that makes a bit more sense. Well, it's good to hear my friend did well. Well, old Ian's got some advice for you. You be careful out there. This place ain't as peachy as it seems. }
 * {124}{}{What's going on here?}
 * {125}{}{Well, the Vault Citizens think very highly of their bloodline and don't care much for people like me and you. You take this gun. It'll protect you if things get a little out of control. You probably shouldn't be seen talking with this crazy old man. Best get on your way.}
 * {126}{}{Thanks for your help.}
 * {127}{}{Let an old man rest.}
 * {128}{}{So familiar...}
 * {129}{}{Leave me be now.}
 * {130}{}{You better get going.}
 * {131}{}{They'll get suspicious if we talk anymore.}
 * {132}{}{Go on, get. Make my old friend proud.}


 * About cow-tipping: that effect was actually in F1 as well, but there you had to use a Booze or a Beer on a brahmin for it to tip over. I assume most players wouldn't have tried that. (And in F2 cows are actually pushable, only they'll tip over instead about 50% of the time.)

Got it.


 * Here's an addition to the Fallout library I thought of. In the late 70s and early 80s some French guy named Claude Auclair wrote a post-apocalyptic comic in five parts called Simon de Fleuve, or Simon of the River. It's been translated into several languages including Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian, but not, it appears, English. It includes among other things: a nomadic tribe which is attacked and brought into slavery by militaristic government remnant forces packing tanks and hi-tech fliers; a race of ghoulish dwarf-mutants living in an old atomic power plant which eventually blows up; a bunch of shaved, bespectacled scientists who all look *exactly* like the Doc Morbid character model. :)

Thanks - another book to add to the post-apoc collection.

Uh, Nina's your mom?
This next question/letter explains itself:

'''Hey, Chris, thanks for answering my question. I'm glad you were able to find some time in your intricate timetable to answer it. You know what, I was a bit at a loss when I saw a letter addressed to my Mom. As you may have already understood I'm using my Mom's e-m@il so that's why it was subscribed by her name. So my name is Dmitri Polioutinne and Nina Pastoukhova is my Mom. Hoping to see my name in the next update. Thanks in advance. Now on to business.'''

Just a word of warning - when I get an email from someone, I'm always going to assume it's from the name in the email. If it is not you, then be sure to put IN CAPS at the front so my old, withered eyes can tell the difference.

'''- I'm sending a fixed version of my question with a fixed spelling.(with a patch installed, just kiddin'). Hope you'll insert the fixed one 'cause I don't want to look like an illiterate asshole.'''


 * DMITRI'S FIXED QUESTION BECAUSE HE IS NOT AN ILLITERATE ASSHOLE.


 * I really appreciate the Fallout Bible project and I think it's a marvelous idea. I've read all the updates and still I'm curious about one thing. Why the Sierra Army Depot is not mentioned at all? I think the Sierra Army Depot is not an insignificant part of the game's plot. Just on the contrary I believe that it has something to do with the F.E.V. experiments or with development of futuristic weapons and armor. It doesn't look like it's just a weapons storage facility. Otherwise why was it inserted into the game if it has no particular reason?(or a place where one can find some stuff to sell and gain an NPC(probably one of the best)) So my question is: What is the role of the Sierra Army Depot in Fallout and what it has to do with the F.E.V. experiments and weaponry development or maybe some kind of an artificial intelligence development?

'''- Besides I wanna be aware of one more thing.(Don't think I'm too insistent) Everybody's mentioning the EPA, the Abbey and the Primitive Tribe(Village). Is there any tiny possibility of these additional locations ever being released or a crack to unpack them? As far as I'm concerned the data of this locations is included into the Master.dat, if I'm not mistaking. So there must be a way to reveal them and make them playable, right? It will do several days of complete enjoyment. I guess you know how it is valuable for the fans.'''

Nope. There's no data in the .dat file either, except slots for them. Other than the documentation I presented in the last update, nothing exists but a paragraph description for each one, no dialogues, no maps, nothing.

Much sadness.

Drunk Monks
A few from the Drunk Monk who needs to lay off the snake squeezin's:

Sorry that there is so much stuff, i'm obsessed with fallout and I just discovered the bible. Fallout bible questions and additions

'''1. I know about the bozar gun in ncr, and the XL70E3 in the tanker. Are there any more secret guns?'''

Not that I know of.

'''1a. Also, I found the "Fallout two strategy guide" in new reno. are there any more things like it?'''

There's a few: Talk to Lynette (with a smart and stupid character at the end game), just about everyone in Reno, there's a computer at the bottom of the Vault in Vault City in the NW corner, talk to Father Tully in Reno, and Miss Kitty. Everyone should say what a great guy/gal you are. I don't know of any others.

2.I noticed that you changed dialouge for new reno people (i.e you sure kicked ass on the enclave!") after you beat the game, but not for other towns and citys. Why? Did you run out of time?

I was the only one who did it, and we didn't talk about it as a group because we were all too busy surfing for porn. There was some debate about letting the player keep playing, so no one knew if it was worth it. I think Matt and Ferg were thinking of cutting the Reno "after game" stuff out since it was inconsistent, but I begged and pleaded so we were left with the inconsistency.

'''3. When you are in golgotha, you can dig up a grave that reveals a living ghoul, who has been buried by racist new renoers! Who is that guy?'''

He's Lenny's dad (one of the ghouls in Gecko, sharing a hut with Harold).

'''4. In the den, you can pay to see a mummy. What is that thing, just a poor ghoul?'''

Yup - you can get the quest to find him in Gecko, I believe.

'''5. Why are there so many damn random encounters? I want to know what are the chances of hitting something, because when i'm traveling I cant go through 1 square without having at least 3 encounters! Do I just have bad luck?'''

The wasteland just loves you.

'''6. In the temple of trials, you use plastic explosive to blow the door. How do tribals out of contact with civilization have military grade explosives?'''

Don't even ask. They probably had it sitting around, along with that handgun in the Elder's tent in the opening movie. The entire Temple of Trials thing is one big mystery and is pretty implausible - the sliding mechanical doors are what really confuse me. I think it came down to an art decision.

Anyway, the story I'm sticking to in the official universe is that the Temple of Trials is actually built on an existing abandoned church - or museum.

'''7. In klamath, whats up with the vertiberd crash? Pilot failure? Foreshadowing? Also, the robot sometime says, "I Can't let you do that, matt." Another programmer joke?'''

Matt Norton put it in Klamath to foreshadow the presence of the Enclave (a good call, I thought). "I can't let you do that, Matt," is a reference to 2001: "I can't let you do that, Dave," except Matt just used his name instead, I think. More 2AM development wackiness.

'''8. On the desktop, the icon for fallout two is the fallout warning icon. When I look in the folder in program files, the icon is some guy! No its not the pipboy! Another programmer joke, and if so, who is it?'''

It is Tim Cain, who worked on Fallout 1 and 2. Chris Jones, one of the programmers, put it in because past his stone-faced exterior, he likes to laugh as much as the rest of us.

'''9. Is there a way to do bishops wife and/or daughter without him getting angry? (Easter egg, sortve: In the end game speech, it says that mrs. Bishop had a baby, the father was never known, and he ruled the bishop family well. If you do it, of course.)'''

Yeah, get on Moore's good side in Vault City, then deliver Moore's briefcase (the good one) to Bishop, and you'll be allowed to wander around on the top floor of the Shark Club without Bishop getting mad. Then you can sleep with whoever you want without him freaking out.

Of course, if you have killed the Raiders, then any conversation with Bishop has a chance of him snidely bringing up the fact that he heard you were responsible, then guns start getting pulled out, and there's bloodshed and woman and children crying.

And here's some hints he would like to pass on to the community:

'''stuff that people probably know, but I am adding it for those who dont. If you want just pick the good ones and copy them into bible, that would be awesome. If theres no good ones thats ok.'''

Fun little quest '''remember joshua in vault city? you had to rescue him for his wife. now think of his son curtis - the one who talks about mr. Nixon. This explains his little quest. Look near the bar where cassidy is, on the ground. you will find a mr. nixon doll. Give it back to curtis(100 xp), and watch his dialouge with mr nixon. He says "Should we dig up daddys wrench?" And tells you that its right behind the bar. Go near to where you found nixon, and there is a pile of rocks in the open. When you click on them, the use item should show up. dig it up and get a free wrench for your troubles.''' '''(Note - You cant dig up the wrench before you learn about it, not even with dynamite.)This quest helps with vics daughter, in vault city. She needs a wrench and pliers, so you dont have to go all the way to Reno anymore. Yay.'''

'''Easy gold - this doesnt help much, but its a start. Look in the pot in aunt morliss' tent and get $100! This isn't much, but in the beginning of the game it helps. There is also a shovel outside her tent.''' '''In klamath, look in the golden gecko. There is a closet with a locked door, and if you pick it, you get an elvis picture worth $300! Again, good money in the beginning of the game.''' '''Fuel cells - in vault citys vault, there is a vent on level two that rattles. Look in it for some micro fusion cells.'''

'''THE BOZAR - Weird name, huh? this awesome weapon is found in the NCR Bazaar.''' '''Search (steal from) the guys in combat armor gaurding the midgets Shop-tent. You should see a big metal machine gun. Do however many saves and reloads it takes, This gun is the best machine gun in the game, maybe the best weapon in the WHOLE GAME, even if it does run through the .223 fmj. You can also get this from new reno arms later in the game, but its just not free.'''

'''The XL70E3 - another gun. This is not a very good gun, but its fun to have. Search the girls with black hair on the tanker (If i'm wrong, search everyone) and one of them should have the XL70E3.'''

'''THE FALLOUT STRATEGY GUIDE - After and only after you have beaten the game, travel to new reno. Talk to father whats-his-name in the church (The alchoholic) He will congratulate you on sticking to the game, and most gamers wouldn't do it these days. He rewards you with an awesome book - it gives 10,000 xp each time you read it, and sets all skills to 300%! This is no joke!'''

'''Algernon - In the basement of new reno arms, you can find moldy ol' algernon! He is a weapon savant (I think that means good at one thing, moronic at everything else) and UPGRADES WEAPONS FOR FREE! Here is a list of weapons he can upgrade, I think I got most of them but i probably missed some. Also look in the corners of that basement for containers, holding:50 micro fusion cells, hard leather mark 2, and an electronic lockpick.'''
 * Hunting rifle -> scoped hunting rifle.
 * Desert eagle -> Expanded magazine
 * Magnum -> Speed loader(Only 2 ap to reload)
 * Fal -> Night Scope
 * Plasma Rifle -> Turbo plasma rifle
 * Assault rifle -> Expanded mag
 * Cattle Prod! -> Super cattle prod

'''After you beat the game, some new reno junkies have up to and over 30 packs of jet! And since there stoned, its a breeze to steal! At 25$ a pack that adds up! I don't know if this was meant to happen, or if it is from junkies with respawning inventorys.'''

Nah, it was something stupid I forgot to check.

'''After you beat the game, you can go back and do miss kitty. Nice.'''

'''Sorry theres so much stuff but i'm a HUGE fan, and I just learned of the bible last night. Hope I didnt reveal too many secrets ;)'''

No worries. Let's give it up for him, people!

Mutating mutants
Marcin has some questions:

'''Hello again - some questions (1) super mutants in F2 where they come from (I know Master created they) I'am asking becouse Vault Dweller destroy main base of mutants and the master hideout and in F2 is huge number of them are master realy created so much super mutants (2) My character addict of "Tragic" I pleyed it once and now a have addiction what it do becouse I don't see anything happends with my character? (3) ghouls are they "product" fo FEV and radiation or only radiation and why they live so long'''

1. The super mutants in F2 are the remnants of the Master's army that fled east after his destruction in F1. He made a lot of them, and not all of them were at the Cathedral or the Military Base. A lot of them could pop up in random encounters, which may have made them seem more numerous.

2. The addiction doesn't do anything - it's harmless. It's a joke related to "Magic the Gathering."

3. Radiation according to Tim Cain, FEV + radiation according to Chris Taylor. Based on points brought up by several fans (including Mr. Carrot and Red_Nmmo), I'm now in the ghouls = radiation camp. And no one knows why they live such a long time - they just do. Well, as long as they stay hydrated.

Meantime?
Chris Avellone had a question for the old producer of the Wasteland engine sequel, Meantime, Bill Dugan, who is expecting a little Dugan girl in the near future. The question was asked on behalf of Ausir and Jason Mical, and it boils down to, "tell me about Meantime."


 * Yeah, I worked on Meantime. Alan Pavlish was the lead on it while it was on the Apple II. Mark O'Green (MCA: Who did the voice-acted dialogues for Fallout, I might add. Can I say that enough? No! Because I love the VO dialogues for Fallout) and Liz Danforth were designers on it. I produced the DOS version for a while. It was based on the Wasteland code. The great new thing was that Alan created a map editor (!), and the scripters/designers could actually create maps in it instead of having to know assembly language and use graph paper like on Wasteland.


 * The plot was that you would go all through time and pick up exciting personages throughout history with their own specialties. Clearly it was the inspiration for Bill & Ted's Big Adventure. Most of them ended with questionable fates and you had to rescue them, so you didn't mess up time by taking them along with you. You got to rescue Amelia Earhardt from a Japanese POW camp. There were plenty of characters who were just cool; Cyrano de Bergerac had maxed out Fencing skill. There was a group of bad guys trying to screw up time by slightly influencing various events, and you had to leap in and fix things. In one scene, Werner von Braun was about to be captured by the Soviets at the end of WWII and you had to get him into the party and help him escape. As I type this it reminds me of GURPS Time Travel.


 * There was a great piece of box art that was created, I remember. It had Albert Einstein on it; you got to recruit him into the party at some point, I think.


 * So the whole thing was built for the Apple II. If I remember correctly, probably 75% of the maps were done, then Liz Danforth quit, and then the Apple II and C-64 markets fell enough for Brian to cancel it. Then he had me try to bring it over to the IBM. We hired a contractor named Bill Besanceney to port it from the Apple II to DOS, and had an in-house artist do EGA graphics for it, and it went pretty slowly, and then Ultima VII came out with its 3D characters and lush graphics and I recommended we cancel Meantime with its top-down, non-animated graphics. It wouldn't really have had a chance.

I can almost hear the Buggles singing "Video Killed the Radio Star" during that last paragraph.

Avalanche
Sagittarius A squeezed out a crapload of questions:

'''Hi, Chris. Another list of questions.'''

'''1. Why is PMV Valdez using fuel instead of fusion cells? It's relatively new (it's carrying a Vault door, and is fully automatic) and it fits perfectly into Enclave's dock. I think the tanker should have been modified by Poseidon Oil to use fusion power instead of burning valuable oil or another flammable fuel.

'''2. What IS Poseidon Oil company? It owns nuclear stations, marine vessels, gas (sorry, fusion energy) stations, prints maps (like the map of L.A.in FO1). It even has it's own network, which connects NORAD stations (!), Iron Mountain bunker and even the Enclave. Is it some kind of state corporation?'''

'''3. The Captain (the head of the punks) tells the player that he was a tech in Navarro. How did he run away from there? And where was the fob located before he was reclaimed by the Enclave?'''

'''4. And why NavComp can be found in V13? And about poor Ed (who was dead).'''

'''5. Wasn't the Vault Dweller the first man who had ever left the V13? Or was Ed from another Vault?'''

'''6. What chemicals did Metzger store it the church? I remember they were from VC and were to be delivered to NR, but what for?'''

7. And how did Metzger get to know about radio transmissions between Salavatore and Navarro?

8. And, finally, which part of VC was in Moore's briefcase?

1. I may be missing some statements from within F2, but my opinions are:

A. Despite the fact that is carrying a Vault Door and is automated doesn't mean the tanker is "new" - it may be old/very old by 2070s standards and not incorporated any fusion technology into its design - and it may be too difficult to retrofit the tanker to run on fusion (although getting the fob was easy). It is not known whether there were any tankers incorporating fusion power sources in the 2070s, although military vehicles would be a different story.

B. Poseidon Oil (during the Pre-War years) would not want its tankers using fusion cells because that would run contrary to the image of the company, despite its practicality. Plus, the idea of something so big running on something so small hurts its self-confidence.

C. Fusion cells are very easy to get (in the game) and thus would undercut the adventure seed of connecting the fuel and the necessity of dealing with the Shi and Hubologists.

D. On some thematic level, the fact that the tanker runs on fuel helps drive home:

i. The fact the player is going to an oil rig. ii. Brings up images of the real-world Valdez. iii. Suggests the dinosaur-era technology of the tanker and it also provokes some images of the desperation of the Resource Wars, if you're a Fallout history buff.

E. The fact that there is a Vault Door aboard the tanker does not mean the tanker itself is new.

2. Poseidon Oil was supposed to have the feel of a larger than life Pre-War conglomerate - kind of like the business-centered evil empire in cahoots with some of the darker and more selfish sections of the federal government. Whoooooo... scary.

3. The Navarro Base has had plenty of deserters (including Dr. Henry in NCR); once exposed to the mainland (even in all its trashiness and monster-ridden wastes), some people prefer a life there to the steel bunker walls of Navarro and the lifelessness, sterility, and closed-in oil and stale smells of the Enclave (reminding you of The Amtrak Wars yet?). And that electric maze at the bottom, which was used extensively for hazing purposes.

4. NavComp in Vault 13: I don't know. I think someone told John to put it in there so the player would be forced to go to Vault 13.

5. Ed, according to Chris Taylor, was a Vault Dweller who went out before the PC. And maybe before Talius, I guess. So you might be the third person out. As for Ed, he's covered in Bible #6, I think - just so a search for "Ed."

6. Metzger: It was just a generic, unknown "chemical" required for the Jet distillation process, since all that brahmin shit needs some processing, too. It's a "McGuffin."

7. Metzger and Radio: Beats me; Dave Hendee knows for sure. He may have had a working radio before he busted it and needed Vic to build him a new one. Metzger mentioned it to help foreshadow the Enclave -> Salvatore ties, like the crashed vertibird in Klamath.

8. It was two separate things: (1) two super stimpaks should appear in Bishop's inventory after you deliver the right case (super stimpaks are valuable, no matter where you are, and Bishop's always in danger of suffering head trauma from snipers - or his family), and (2) some downloads from the VC main database - which Bishop requested from Moore, although Moore didn't realize that Bishop wanted the current roster of all VC guards so he could see if he could "get" to one of them with drugs or other "convincing."

To the line, Horrigan
Master Chef had a question about the mutated toe.

You said something about the mutated toe doing nothing to Horrigan....But it actually made his HP turn from 999/999 to 996/996.

Yeah, that's true, it will do some poison damage to Horrigan, like it will do to anyone else. So it does something, just nothing special.

Again, please ignore any rumors telling you to use the toe on Horrigan at the end battle in Fallout 2 - it's a bad joke.

Just like a Khan to bring a knife to a gunfight
Sagittarius A had a question on the Raiders section from Fallout Bible 6:

'''In FO Bible #6 you say that "They are eager in combat to prove their worthiness to the clan by engaging in hand to hand combat with fists or clubs. The Khans carry very few firearms (since they are for cowards)." But as far as I can remember, the Khans were mean gun thugs in FO1. Why were they changed?'''

The answer is, I don't know. They may not have been tough enough with just melee weapons - and as far as I know, the designer who initially wrote the concept of the Khans (Scott Campbell, I think) wasn't the one who finally implemented them (Chris Taylor, I believe). It's mostly a game logic reason - Chris T may have wanted them to have guns, or maybe they were too weak with just melee weapons.

Forces, fields and fifteens
Kotbogdan asked this...

'''I was wondering about V15 generator in Fallout 2. You can't do much with it, apart from repairing it. Was it originally a part of some quest, that doesn't exist now? Are the forcefields installed just for fun? Maybe, if the player rapaired the generator, the Squaters coluld move in and use the forcefields to protect themselves from the outside world?'''

I checked with the designer, and he said:
 * "I don't remember much about this. I think that if you repaired it the lights came on. However, it also turned on all the defenses for the vault and you then had to overcome them. Anyway, that's all I remember and I'm not sure about that."

If I find out anymore, I'll post it in a future update.

Oh, and nothing will protect the Squatters from the outside world. Their lives are harsh, victimized ones.

Cassidy's big brass balls
Dave had a question on the only combat-focused NPC ally I did for Fallout 2:

'''Howdy Chris Avellone. I was wondering if you could find someone to verify this for me. Y'see, I have this little theory that Cassidy (from Fallout 2's Vault City) is the son of a character MacRae(from Fallout's Boneyards). Evidence:'''

Same sprite for a start, Both good at unarmed combat, About the right age difference, When you try to sell Cassidy as a slave, his name comes up as none other, than MacRae.

'''Can you find the guy who made Cassidy and find out if he really was meant to be MacRae's son please? And if not, why do they bother showing Cassidy's second name when you sell him?'''

The answer is no, he's not MacRae's son. Cassidy is a stand-alone man of the wastes. However, all of the reasons you listed above are good examples of why you could make a case for it. Most of the confusion lies in:

- The model.

- The "McRae" name. Basically, "McRae" is an inside joke, since it's Feargus' (our division director's) middle name. He designed a lot of the Boneyards, put McRae in, and he also did the second pass on Vault City in Fallout 2, and he put McRae as the name of the bartender.

- When I took over the area, I liked the name "Cassidy" better, so I gave Cassidy that name and designed his character to be a gunfighter who likes to drink too much.

- The reason they show Cassidy's second name when you sell him is a bug.

Sorry for the confusion, Dave.

What's Carlson's deal?
Brady Brewer, whose emails are black text on a black background because of a stupid glitch with Outlook, asks:

Does Vice-President Carlson, in NCR, serve a purpose in NCR, serve a purpose in FO2, cause I cant even get him to talk to me.

He's just there to be assassinated for the Bishop mission. Die, Carlson, die!