Fallout Bible 7

Notes: All notes in italics and wiki links come from The Vault editors, not from Chris Avellone himself.

Fallout Bible update 7

July 29th 2002 or something



The seven deadly sins of Fallout
Here's the seventh 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 "Update Zero" and the fourth, fifth, and sixth update stand on their own.

For those of you who haven't seen these before, the Fallout Bible is just a collection of all the background material and hi-jinks from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 compiled into one document so the fans can take a look at it. Some of the stuff in this update a little rough, or just plain wrong because I forgot about somebody's dialogue or holodisk, so if you see anything wrong or if you think of anything you'd like to see, drop me a line 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.

This update contains seven deadly secrets of Fallout. They are not the same as sins, but they can be interpreted as such.

Thanks for supporting Fallout, Chris Avellone @ Blaque Aisle Stoodios

The seven deadly sins
This update contains the following:

1. The first concepts of Deathclaws. 2. The origin of the Glow name. 3. What are the Burrows? You asked for it. 4. The real, first draft of the EPA location for Fallout 2... if I can find the stupid document in the next hour or two. 5. The true origin of the Fallout deathclaws. 6. The name of the man responsible for Tim Cain's exploding head in the Fallout 1 credits. 7. The differences between Russian and Polish. The languages, I mean.

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. I cannot answer any questions about a Fallout 3. There's not one in production. I swear upon Josh Sawyer's life that I am never going to answer this question again, so cut it out.
 * 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.

Big winners and big winters
I know I offered a prize on the wonderful world of nuclear winters last time, but I haven't sorted through all the answers yet, mostly because Outlook chose this weekend to start acting screwy. I will at some point, just not now.

Pie in the face section
Welcome to the pie in the face of the section where you get to rub my nose in bad facts. This will most likely be a regular feature.

1. Some guy named "Whatever," sent me the following email about the "Russian" website I showcased in the last Bible update:


 * The whole thing is about one single mistake you made in your Bible (upd.6).


 * Point 10


 * Line 7


 * Word 14


 * "it's in Russian, I think" RUSSIAN? This is a Polish site, I repeat: P-O-L-I-S-H. Like Poland. If you think it's in Russian, then you haven't seen a Russian letter yet. I am really upset because I'm a patriot and if you ask me what is this country then I'm going to kill you, cut your head off, drown you, hang you then cut you in half and into a million pieces then I will slowly cook you in garlic and spinach sauce! With mint!


 * OK, now I'm calm (this text above was partially the result of reading the few lines of your bible about letters you will not answer - you have a "lively" style). I suggest you fix this immediately and put the new copy on all official servers. Do I make myself clear? (modified Fallout2 Navarro Enclave Guard speech, I'm sure you've noticed.)


 * T(h)ank you


 * Punishment: Diablo 2 is better than BG :P

So there's the retraction: Man, you Russians sure are sensitive. This is a joke. Really.

2. Saint Proverbius begs to differ on a piece of history worthy of retraction: the BOS didn't burrow their way beneath the Lost Hills bunker; they did some mods to the base, but they didn't tunnel out the rest of the levels. So ignore that aspect that I mentioned in a previous update. It was dumb and is forever silenced. Keep moving. Nothing to see here.

3. The EPA design doc from last update actually was one of two drafts for the location. The first one was designed by Jason Suinn, who eventually passed it off to me...

...and now I can't find the stupid document, so I'll have to leave it for another time. There was mention of an easter egg drug, a mad scientist in charge of the installation who was experimenting on people, and a lab protected by a maze filled with mutations and traps.

A few questions
Here's a few questions. Not many. If I didn't answer yours, it's pending.

One from Ashmodai:

1. In case I'm not on your blocked senders list already, I'd have another question for you:

Who's responsible for the exploding Tim Cain animation in the Interface folder of Fallout 1?

Is it actually being used in the game as an easter egg or did just one of the designers waste some expensive development time on it?

Chris Jones, I believe; he was a programmer on F1, F2, Arcanum, and now BIS' Jefferson project - from what I heard, he snuck it in there one day, then Tim noticed it while trying to figure out why the "credits" routine was calling an animation.

One from Kefir:

'''2. In the Fallout Bible you have written, then FEV cause ghouls and supermutants sterile but in the F2 in the Broken Hills in the Old Ghouls House (or something like that) lives a son of Set. Set cannot have a son because he's a ghoul, so cause FEV sterile or not? (Or is it only a joke?)'''

According to designer Colin McComb (who is so tough that [1] he did design on Planescape and [2] lives in Detroit), Typhon was Set's son before they became ghouls and became sterile and mutated and all gross-looking.

Still, because it was Broken Hills, it's best you simply ignore everything that happened there except for the racism angle and quests, the caravans and Chad, the references to the Unity, and Marcus. There are no talking plants, no old ghoul's home, no treasure hunter, no ghoul getting run over, no scorpion intelligence experiments, etc, etc. Same with some aspects of the Sierra Army Depot (the news holodisk, Skynet's "name," etc, etc). At some point I'll put together a list of things that are going to be dropped from continuity because they are so painful they make sitting on the can squeezing out a load of superheated plasma seem pleasurable by comparison.

Let's talk deathclaws.

So... deathclaws
So... Deathclaw evolution. Fallout Tactics had it right because they tapped into the collective unconscious and realized the truth. Or, they may have decided that they needed deathclaws to have hair so they had some way of identifying teams in a multiplayer game. I don't know.

First off, deathclaws pay homage to the "shadowclaws" in Wasteland. They lurk in the mines near the Ranger Base. They are very tough and scary and can make you wet your pants.

In the original Deathclaw concept art done by Scott Campbell (who, among other talents, wrote the story for Fallout 1 and laid out many of the major NPCs and locations), the Deathclaws were to look like this:

Which is not exactly what they look like now.

Ah, but the Fallout 1 iteration of deathclaws is an even uglier story that reveals the true dark underbelly of development. A filthy, dirty secret, kept in the dark for too long. Now... now the truth must be told.

Once upon a time, someone, somewhere, thought a Forgotten Realms fighting game would be a cool idea. As cosmic karma would have it, it never happened. Many clay models were made, however, by the talented Scott Rodenheizer, who did many of the heads for Fallout 2. By the way, I have a suspicion that not all the heads done for Fallout were actually "clay," but were actually human heads covered in plaster. But I'll leave that for another update.

If you are so blessed with the following book, please flip through the white-covered 2nd Edition AD&D Monstrous Manual, and amongst the pictures, you will see (perhaps, maybe, coincidentally, nothing concrete admitted) what the Deathclaw was originally intended to be. Time came when Fallout needed a nasty monster, and that model was available. So the Deathclaw's look was born.

If you email me what the critter is first, you go into my growing list of big winners which have been piling up since the nuclear winter question from last time.

So take your deathclaws with hair or take them from the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. It makes no difference - their origins are what they are.

Dogmeat or...?
Another secret: According to Fallout 1 designer, Scott Bennie (who designed some of the central Hub, including Iguana Bob's, Jake's, and parts of the Thieves Guild, as well as the upper floors of the Cathedral), Dogmeat was originally called "Dogshit," and, well...


 * Scott Bennie: I came up with the name "Dogmeat"; this was originally Jake's [Hub] dog, and was originally named "Dogshit" (toning it down was a good call in this case), then Tim or Chris applied it to the other, better pooch. :-)

The Fallout area that never was: the Burrows
For your hot and heavy Fallout 1 behind-the-scenes viewing pleasure, I present some scanned designs of the "Burrows," a location that, along with the Vipers and the Jackals, never made it into Fallout 1. It was designed by Scott Campbell and Brian Freyermuth, so sit back, sip your tea, and enjoy.

And yes, these documents are scanned. Why? Because there's no way I was going to type this stuff out like the Jackals and Vipers in the last update and leave bloody fingerprints all over my keyboard.

The reason for the circled sections below are unknown; I know the FSEF was what West-Tek was called in the original Scott Campbell design documentation, along with Base Omega @ Military Base (I'll try to include Scott Campbell's original Fallout timeline doc in a future update, so you can see the origins of what made it into the final game). You may blame me of this naming terminology if you wish, but it was out of my hands, long ago.

Why didn't the Burrows make it in? Well, according to Tim Cain (obtained through Peter Nelleman/FO-Tank):


 * Tim Cain: This location was written by an early designer associated with the project. While it was well written, I felt that its content was not appropriate to our Fallout universe, mainly based on its style and feel in the game and not on its artistic merit. So I did not approve its addition to the game, and that Glow holodisk is all that remains of any reference to that area.

Thanks to Tank' for digging that up.

In any event, that's it for update #7. You may debate, flame, or debate-flame me either at the address at the beginning of this update or on the message boards. Email is usually faster... even with Outlook acting all screwy.

Until next time,

Chris Avellone @ BIS