Rivet City

Rivet City is the largest human settlement in the Capital Wasteland or Washington, DC area. Its inhabitants live in individual rooms inside of the vessel, and a number of guards rotate 24 hours a day to protect the ship from Raiders, Super Mutants, and any other threats to security. Rivet City includes a shopping area called "The Rivet City Marketplace" as well as an American History Museum, Science Lab, bar and hotel, all of which have related quest to be completed.

Rivet City's inhabitants are arguably the most "normal" in the game next to vault dwellers, as they carry no diseases and are excluded from the outside post nuclear world.

Location
Rivet City lies in the most southeastern part of the map, near Anacostia. It is easiest to reach by following the eastern side of the river Potomac, crossing near the Tepid Sewer or at the Citadel, or by swimming across from Arlington Library. You can also walk from the Jefferson Memorial.

If you are coming from the back door of the GNR Building, you can come all the way underground from Collapsed Car Tunnel, past the Museum Station, continuing South to the Anacostia station. (Click the Discussion tab for this page regarding a Pip Boy World Map glitch here.)

There is also an intercom button on the structure where Carlos the beggar asks for water. Click the intercom button to extend the bridge to Rivet City.

History
Rivet City is located inside of an aircraft carrier that was docked at the Washington Navy Yard at the time of the Great War, and left stranded when the water level in the Anacostia and Potomac rivers dropped. The community was founded by members of the pre-War Naval Research Center, who moved to the vessel to make use of its onboard facilities and comparatively defensible position.

By 2277, Rivet City was the sole supplier of edible, non-irradiated food in the Capital Wasteland, trading it for essential raw materials with other communities.

Notable Places
Inside the enclosed "city", there was a clear separation of social classes, with those living on the lower decks of the ship treated as dregs and undesirables by the "upper-deckers".

Rivet City contained a large and thriving marketplace, as well as other institutions, such as: Fortunately, Rivet City is quite well signposted, unlike the citadel.
 * Saint Monica's Church a Christian-like religious community,
 * the Capitol Preservation Society with a museum of pre-War historical artifacts and knowledge,
 * the Weatherly Hotel,
 * a well-stocked and well-guarded armory,
 * the Muddy Rudder bar.

The broken bow of the ship was separated from the main carrier superstructure and half-flooded. The lower levels are inhabited by Mirelurks while the upper levels contain Pinkerton's laboratory and home.

For the player exploring the vessel, when checking out the bridge tower, it is worth going through all the exterior doors. These lead to catwalks on the outside of the tower, most of which have an ammunition box or something similar worth looting.

To access Rivet City, climb to the 3rd story of the tower near the Rivet City map marker. There is an intercom near the guy asking for water. When activated a bridge will extend from the ship.

Northwest of Rivet City is a Super Mutant camp with a Lying, Congressional Style, and a captive.

Appearances
Rivet City appears only in Fallout 3.

Essential Characters (Unable to be killed)

 * Shrapnel
 * Doctor Preston
 * Harkness
 * C.J. Young
 * James Hargrave
 * Abraham Washington

Related Quests
On the Upper Deck you can rent a hotel room for 120 caps from Vera Weatherly, or her robot. After purchasing the hotel room, you can access it for free thereafter. With this room comes a bed, which grants you the Well Rested bonus effect of +10% experience. Sometimes the room will have an average lock on it, but you do not lose Karma for picking it. The Bobblehead - Intelligence is standing on the table in the Science Lab.


 * Scientific Pursuits
 * The Replicated Man
 * Stealing Independence
 * The Wasteland Survival Guide
 * Those!
 * A Nice Day for a Right Wedding
 * Church Donations
 * Council Seat
 * Light-Fingers Hargrave
 * Overdose
 * Slave Hunt
 * Suicide Watch
 * The Runaways



Killing and Enslaving Characters in Rivet City
For the Strictly Business quest, one of your objectives is to enslave Flak who resides in Rivet City and is co-owner of Flak and Shrapnel's. It is advised that you do not enslave him until you completed most of the game and have a significant amount of ammo, as enslaving him will cause Shrapnel to randomly wander off into the Capitol Wasteland (although not die because he is invincible) and then you will have no one to barter with for weapons and ammunition.

Flak along with the character Brock (who can be found in the Muddy Rudder) are two characters in particular who can be enslaved in Rivet City. If you attempt to enslave them and are caught, you can bail Rivet City by running out of the town far enough until you are no longer being chased/shot at and then fast travel to another city. Fast travel back 24 hours later in game time and the town will forget your sins. This goes along with murdering any of the residents in Rivet City as well.

If you do kill or enslave anyone from Rivet City and are caught, upon re-entering the city, certain characters (mainly the Rivet City guards) will have a unique dialog open. When walking next to them, they will say things like "you're lucky I don't kill you for what you pulled", "I'm going to give you a second chance", or "we're told to forgive and forget what you did." Certain store owners may say strange things as well after committing a crime in Rivet City.

Behind the scenes
The Craig Mullins concept art published on May 15, 2007 shows a city with ruined skyscrapers and an aircraft carrier which has run ashore and is connected to one of them by a rudimentary bridge. The aircraft carrier appears to be the USS Oriskany although the image is mirrored thus placing the island on the wrong side of the ship. The picture that was used for reference is located on a website devoted to naval vessels.

Given the vessel's location (at the Washington Navy Yard), it is tempting to assume the carrier must have been a museum piece. This would appear to be supported by the large number of antique aircraft left on the flight deck. The aircraft are Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars, which saw use during Korea. Such modern-day aircraft carrier museums as the USS Lexington display aircraft on board the flight deck and/or hangar deck.

The USS Oriskany was an Essex-class aircraft carrier, of which only four others remain and are open as museums: the USS Hornet in Alameda, California; the USS Lexington, in Corpus Christi, Texas; the USS Yorktown, in Charleston, South Carolina; and the USS Intrepid, in New York City. (The Oriskany is now an artificial reef off the coast of Florida.)

Bugs

 * If you go into the main entrance of Rivet City ,(which is the stairwell entrance) and you have Fawkes in your party with you he will get stuck in the stairwell unless you go through a door which requires loading. (Note: He sometime will get stuck PERMANENTLY and you have to load the game to get him unstuck.)


 * At the Rivet City Midship there is a high chance that your game will freeze, even if you leave the area afterwards. The chance of this happening increases if you Plan C (slaughter) the town and can also occur in the market place.  It is unknown what causes this and no fix has been found.


 * At the Rivet City Marketplace, if you jump on the table at the galley where food is sold, you may become stuck. This can be easily fixed by facing one of the chairs around the table hitting the action button to sit on it.


 * In the halls of the Midship there is some kind of small step ladder don't walk up on it or you'll get stuck and have to reload your last savegame.


 * On the Midship Deck, inside the Common Room, walk into either indent of the doorway and look around the room, a blue void has appeared.


 * Outside on the carrier, near the bridge there is a stash with ammo containers and a first-aid box. If you approach some of the walls here, you will fall through the ship and get stuck inside, with nothing but radioactive water around you. The same thing will happen if you jump from the Flight Deck to the floor below and touch the walls there.


 * The game tends to freeze A LOT outside Rivet City on the path to the Jefferson Memorial at the point where the Super Mutants are, so it should be in your best interest to stay away from this area. This tends to start happening after you completed The Waters of Life quest, when the Enclave have the plasma field around the compound.


 * If you steal from several people (perhaps even just one person), Harkness will refer to you in floating dialogue as a 'petty thief', even if nobody saw you do it. This has no effect on his 'proper' dialogue though.


 * While utilizing the Chinese Stealth Armor and a silenced weapon, if you kill a NPC in Rivet City, the inhabitants will only be hostile for anywhere from ten seconds to two minutes. After the time has passed and the NPC's become green (friendly) in the compass, you can resume normal dialogue. (Confirmed Xbox360 and PC)


 * While Trinnie is asleep, Belle's door is 'unowned' (green to open) and she can apparently detect you through the door even if you close it behind you, thus making stealing things from the shelf in front of it difficult.


 * For whatever reason, almost all the NPCs that are found in the market can get stuck outside the main entrance to the market. They seem to still think they are in the market and open for business. If you have trouble finding an NPC, chances are they fell into the water near the entrance.