Fallout Bible 6

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

Fallout Bible update

July 10th 2002?



Back from the frozen North... for now
Well, I officially sold my soul by doing an Icewind Dale 2 designer diary and bartered it for some time to do another one of these Fallout Bible updates. I don't know when the next one is going to be - depends how Icewind Dale 2 is going.

Anyway, welcome to the sixth 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" (a cryptic and sinister name, isn't it?) and the fourth and fifth update stand on their own. The reason the fourth and fifth stand on their own is because they are brave little updates, and my heart goes out to them.

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. The term "Bible" is misleading, since it's not supposed to start some religion or be the word of some holy power - it's just a term I stole from Chris Taylor (Fallout 1, Fallout Tactics), who apparently stole it from some guy named Dan Wood who called me at work once. Dan Wood's Bible and this Bible aren't the same thing. This is just for fun. It is also not a marketing ploy to drum up Fallout sales, since this is for fans who already snagged the game and wouldn't mind knowing a bit more about what went on behind the scenes or what material never actually made it in. Please feel free to take this paragraph and formulate whatever conspiracy theories you want.

Some of the stuff in this update a little rough, 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 (especially with Icewind Dale 2 and my repeated attempts to barricade my office against Josh Sawyer's sudden designer artillery strikes), but I will get around to it, usually when the weekend hits.

Small, quick questions have a much faster turn around time. This is because I am lazy. More on this below.

Oh, there may be parts of this doc that are sketchy because I am tired. And cranky.

Thanks for supporting Fallout,

Chris Avellone @ Black Isle Something Or Other

Fast forward
Okay, I always start these updates with a list. So here it is!

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.

No, really.

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, IcewindDale 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 because I AM REALLY, REALLY BUSY.

5. BTW, if anyone has the link for the Unwashed Villagers site (or if it still exists), let me know. I need to make sure they are not some lie concocted by Dave Hendee.

6. Sebastien Caisse is our Big Winner #1 from last time on the Magic Eightball and went beyond the call of duty by providing a full list of Tell Me Abouts for Fallout 1 because he is a crazy programmer guy and knows how to crack Fallout 1 code like a twig. Sebastien, I salute you. (Feel free to post your answers on the Fallout message boards.) His other great claim to fame is the fact that I occasionally get bounced from his email address, which makes me mad and scream his name loudly, usually while I am having sex with my girlfriend.

7. Thanks also to Michael Jeppesen, who also gave me a list Tell Me Abouts... thanks, Michael.

8. BTW, Big Winner #2 on the Magic Eightball is Gammons, however, who, while not as fast as Sebastien, included all the same answers, along with text corrections. Thanks, Gammons. I salute you as well. There were some other people, too, but they came in third, fourth, fifth, and so on, and I don't feel like listing them out.

9. If I ever get anyone's name wrong when I respond to your emails, tough. Some of you have "a"s and "e"s in strange places - maybe if your parents had named you with some sense, there wouldn't be a problem.

10. If you like Fallout, Peter Nellemann (who I'm guessing is FO-Tank, one of the 12 Dark Apostles of Fallout fame) has a site you might want to check out:

www.geocities.com/fo_tank

And so does ol' "Man of a Million Questions" Deadlus:

http://fallout.gracz.net/fmc/ks/index.php

These links may be broken by the time I post this, but not as of this morning. Deadlus' site looks pretty spiffy, even though I couldn't read a word of it since it's in Russian, I think.

11. And, "Pawel," if you're out there, I tried responding to your address and kept getting bounced, so I just want to let you know I'll be answering your questions in a future update, but it probably won't be for a while.

Now let me get on with being obstinate:

Questions I will not answer
In addition to the list of questions I will be answering this time, I also have a list of questions I will not answer or questions that will most likely take a very long time before you see them. Among them are the following.

'''1. When is Fallout 3 going to happen?/How's Fallout 3 coming along?/I heard you guys are working on Fallout 3! When is it due out?/Will Fallout 3 be ready by christmas?/Is Fallout 3 contingent on getting the Bible done?/Are you guys planning a sequel to Fallout 2?'''

Fallout 3 isn't in production.

Fallout 3 isn't contingent on getting the Bible done.

The Fallout Bible isn't a marketing ploy.

I am compiling this information because it's fun and because I'm trying to get prepped to release a Fallout pen-and-paper game (for free) on the web, and it pays to run this stuff by you guys and get your feedback, since a hundred extra pairs of eyes (and torches) never hurts.

I swear upon Josh Sawyer's life that I will never answer this question again. If you email me this question, I will not answer it.

2. What happened to China, Russia, or any other areas outside the area explored in Fallout 1 and 2?

I don't know. To tell the truth, I really don't care - since I am an Ugly American living in California, I only care about the areas in F1 and F2, and possibly any areas close by that have some impact on them.

As for the rest of the world ("ROW"), there's little to nothing on the ROW that hasn't already been hinted at in the games (this also includes sections of North America and the United States that weren't in Fallout 1 or 2). Anything I would write would be speculation and would require a great deal of research, much more than I can put in on weekends, so it's going to be a while before you see these answers. It's quite possible you may never see these answers (fleshing out other countries may pigeonhole potential future Fallout titles that would want to make up their own history for the region). I may change my mind later, because I am fickle, but until then, don't send me these questions, either.

3. What was U.S./world history like before the timeline included in previous Fallout updates?

No one has asked this yet, but I thought I would cut this question off at the pass. Fallout takes place on a future earth, in an alternate timeline. I will not be including any information on how and when it diverged - it will remain one of the mysteries of the setting. Just let it be known that it diverged after WW2, and leave it at that.

4. What were the experiments in the other Vaults and where are they located?

Answering this might curtail any adventure seeds for the future, so I won't be answering it.

5. What cities were nuked and which ones weren't?

See answer #4. If someone is making a game in a section of the Fallout universe, then I'd like to leave them the freedom to say what was nuked and what wasn't.

Questions that may take a while
1. Any question related to blueprints and schematics for Power Armor, Robots, etc, is going to take a while; I probably won't be able to get to them until I have a lot more free time than right now. Those models and concepts don't exist, and I'd have to draft them by hand or shanghai a Black Isle artist. We got a bunch of new artists, but so far, they're pretty crafty and have been avoiding my nets and pit traps.

2. If you send more than one question to me in an email, the time it takes me to answer these emails is about one month per question past the first, because I am lazy and I hate you. If you break them up into smaller, one question emails, this makes me much happier.

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. Based on how things are going, this will most likely be a regular feature.

Vesuvius corrected me on ZAX's initialization, so here's the corrected entry in the Fallout timeline from 2-11-02:

Oskar Liljeblad has pointed out another flaw in the timeline:

Look at these two paragraphs from the timetable in the Fallout bible from 2002-02-11:


 * 2162 May 10: Fallout 1 Ends: Vault Dweller returns to Vault 13, only to be told "you're a here and you have to leave." Some members of the Vault (led by Lydia, the head of the "return to the surface" faction, and including her supporters, Therese and Lyle) follow soon afterwards.
 * 2165 May 12: Vault Dweller removes the Vault suit and from this day forward, never wears it again.

'''My question is, what happend during the three years between 2162 and 2165? Or is 2165 May 12 the incorrect date (maybe it should be two days after the vault dweller was expelled)?'''

Thanks, Oskar. If you (or anybody else) see anything else wrong, don't hesitate to let me know. Or better yet, post it on the boards rather than email me directly, where it may take me a few days to see it.

Questions galore
We've got the usual round of questions this time. Ignore the bumbling numbering scheme - I gave up on keeping consistent after Deadlus' question barrage.

Some groovy cat named CoolJiggily had this comment to make:

'''0. I was just wondering once when I killed the deathclaw in Navaro (Xarn I think) I had used an energy weapon and had a critical hit. The kind where the target drops everything on the ground when they die. The claw the he was weilding fell it was a purple(maybe blue) square with white text that said deathclaw weapon 2(or something like that). This item was a okay melee weapon. Do you have any knowledge about this?'''

What we do in most of the RPGs we make (both in Fallout and in the Infinity Engine games) is equip monsters and NPCS with "invisible weapons" that simulate their attacks. The items are supposed to vanish upon death, but if you hit it too hard and too fast for the computer to handle, boom, it may drop it.

So that's the big mystery. Oh, and way to kill Xarn, you big savior of the world, you.

The first of many from Deadlus in an attempt to clean out my mailbox:

'''1a. I know that enclave didn't even exist as an idea in FO1, but it is in FO2 and I thought that you guys have a ready story "why enclave didn't do anything about master" and you didn't put it in the game for some reasons!'''

Nope, there was no ready story, at least that I was aware of - Cain & crew coined the Enclave, and they may have had some reason why they didn't do anything about the Master. It may just be that the Enclave was only active in Northern California and besides, not many people even knew about the Master's operation in Southern California anyway.

'''1b. Eh, I guess I have to be piatent......BTW. I know you answered one (only one, the smallest one :) of my qustions! BTW2. In tanker there was a dead vault 13 guy near those vault doors, how did he get there blah blah (you know the rest)? BTW3. How did those "aliens", floaters and other things get into the tanker??? They sneaked in or something?? I had some other qustions but I forgot them :), oh, that Ed guy ( "You see Ed, Ed is dead) supossed to be another in-joke like Leonard Boyarski ?'''

Vault suit guy in tanker: Unknown. It's possible he was a test subject left over from the Enclave when they held the tanker, or a traveler from Vault City. His origin was never mentioned in the documentation.

The aliens, floaters, and centaurs were placed in the tanker, since we needed some major baddies in the tanker at the end game. They most likely crawled down there in search of a lair before the punks showed up. Centaurs and floaters get around - mostly wherever game logic (not necessarily plausibility) dictates.

Ed - yeah, it's in-joke. According to Chris Taylor:
 * What's the deal with Ed? Zed's Dead, baby, Zed's dead. From Pulp Fiction. That's part of the reference. Ed was twofold: to immediately show the player that the outside world was dangerous, and to tell the player that he wasn't the first choice of someone to send out. Ed was sent out before the waterchip malfunction, however, since he's just bones.