What should the future of the Fallout franchise setting be?

[FaxModem1]

Fallout is an interesting franchise. It follows some nameless adventurers as they take place in crucial events years after a nuclear war, and how they shape their respective wastelands. And even with this freedom given to the player, there's a canon of what happened in previous iterations.

Fallout 1(100 years after the nuclear war) and 2(150 years after the war, 50 years after the first game), pretty much made the western part of the United States see the rise of the New California Republic, and dealing with the remnants of pre-war America, and the weird science of 1950s style science fiction. What we saw in the endings was the rebuilding of civilization, based mostly on your actions.

So much so, that Fallout 3 took place on the other side of the continent, to try and keep the idea of a post-nuclear war wasteland, in which things are much less civilized and much more chaotic.(IE, in need of much more quests and random killing of enemies).

Fallout New Vegas tried something different, in which they ran with the premise of the world-building, and established the new nations coming to a head in the post-nuclear war wasteland. We see the NCR, a western style republic, up against Caesar's Legion, a rapidly expanding conquering chauvinistic empire, with New Vegas, a wild casino town, and major economic capital(with the power generation capabilities of Hoover Dam being the real prize), as the contested prize between them. So much so that Chris Avellone thinks the NCR needs to be wiped from the map, because it's making things 'too civilized'.

Fallout 4 swayed to the eastern seaboard again, to try and make a game about an utterly chaotic wasteland with artificial people and robots, and dealing with the consequences of that.(Try being the keyword)

Fallout 76 is a mess, for a lot of reasons, but they purposely chose to set it before the first game, in an untapped area, West Virginia.

So, does Fallout have to have a wasteland? Could you do a Fallout game entirely set in the now prosperous NCR? In a restored Boston Commonwealth? In some rebuilt America? Or would that go against the theme of what Fallout is?

What should, if there are going to be more Fallout games, the franchise be in regards to its setting?

[Mr Bean]

I put some thought into this to not only think up Factions but the game intro and do a map.

Behold Fallout 4(Now 5) Windy City


The elevator pitch is this, Let's be the bad guys. The ruins of Chicago would be our iconic cityscape with the map going down from Gary Indiana to Joliet in the West and Evanston in the north. You play as a Enclave vault survivor the start of the game would be as Fallout 3 except much faster. Instead of birth you wake up in the common ward and get your Enclave ID (Face creation), hard cut to first day of school where you pick one of two-three options for your new friend and the sport you play which influence your primary special

Strength-Boxing
Perception-Tennis
Endurance-Boxing
Charisma-Wrestling
Intelligence-Playing chess with the nerds
Agility- Gymnastics
Luck -Playing cards with the slacker kids

Hard cut to being successful at your sport, you win the boxing match, score the winning point, clean your friend out of all of his chips whatever is the big win. Now your being interviewed about your future career with the Enclave and you decided what to study (Tagged skills) hard cut to the big day your being given a mission by your commander, it's time to bring the glory of civilization back to the wasteland and you and your school friend (As well as the other two unpicked friends who become rivals) are going to leave the vault and infiltrate the current power structures in the Windy City to be ready to bring them down so the Enclave can take over. You are selected to take one your rival friends take the other then you hit the door and your free to ignore the main plot which is a slow burn of becoming powerful and revered to either stick to your Enclave roots and overthrow you chosen side or stick with them and turn on your birthplace. The two main factions ala New Vegas are the Council and the Dominion, the Council being the remains of the Chicago goverment and alderman who escaped north when the bombs fell and the Dominion being the unofficial name for the mutual defense treaty between the tribals, weekend raiders and other degenerates who are held together by Vault XX one of the control vaults that Vault-Tec created and used as a control it opened on time and thrived as it's residents live in a walled setup but offer free clean water and medical knowledge in trade for people following their very lose set of rules.

The rough conflict of the game is not good vs evil but instead a Law Vs Chaos with hypocrits on every side and the traditional colorful Fallout tribes to round things out. Chicago itself should be on the level of the Fallout 4 glowing sea except with more intact buildings and ghoul ant hill level of ghoul concentrations.

The primary message of the game (aside from war never changes) would be this, it's a shit world, make the best of it. Every faction would have hypocrites, zealots and ordinary folks, even your Enclave vault will be full of bright happy people to see you. But if you recruit some wasteland degerate and bring them home they will insist on putting a bomb collar on them to prevent word of your home from leaking out. Unlike Fallout 3 you can go home again and it will change.

Our three DLC's would be a romp on islands in the Great lakes centered around Beaver Island a run up to Green Bay or Milwaukee and a visit to the great Canadian north.

[Gandalf]

For me, it would depend on which the direction in which they took the gameplay. I liked the old manner of conversations where there could be myriad options about different ways to solve issues, all of which were dependent on how you built your character. If they went back to that, I'd love to see a game set in perhaps Manhattan and surrounds. Or if they could leave the US, Moscow.

If the game goes down the weird survival FPS route it seems to be going, then Tokyo so you can go all out on the monsters.

[Sea Skimmer]

I'd like to see it set around a radioactive New Oreleans/Mississippi setting myself with new stuff coming down the river, and from the ocean to change it up a bit. Like say partway into the game a huge ship arrives full of radioactive mutants ect... this would open up having foreign factions involved in whatever happens or large scale changes in the game world as it evolves.

[Jub]

Explore places outside of the United State, the obvious one being China; though a Fallout Berlin or even an entire Fallout the United Kingdom would also be very interesting. Something naturally isolated and self-contained like Fallout Hawaii or Fallout Peurto Rico could really shake up the feel without leaving the United States. Setting a game, likely more of a shooter than a proper RPG, during the invasion of Alaska would also make for a lot of new story space to flesh out.

[Avrjoe]

I think they need to slow down the time jumps and move around geographically rather than historically the further you get from the apocalypse the less sense the setting makes.

American places Miami, Seattle, New Orleans, and Chicago (Update the Midwest BoS) seem to be fan favorites. I would like to see something set in Alaska I doubt Anchorage was directly nuked it's what the chinese wanted to occupy after all.

If going outside the US. Canada (Toronto/Ronto) has been mentioned as a major settlement in Fallout 3. China would be nice to visit (Might reuse the chinese sub captain from Fallout 4) see the aftermath of the other side of the war. Mexico having to deal with New California a powerful neighbor to the north might be a neat set up for some social political commentary.

[Gunhead]

Fallout is decidedly based on america and it's culture so while a fallout style game set in europe or asia for that matter is an interesting concept, I think "proper" fallout games should stay in north america. Fallout to me should stay on the path set by fallout 1, fallout 2 and New Vegas. Those games showed us pretty much how the rebuilding progressed from simple settlements to cities and to the rise of new nations. They also did this while maintaining a good balance between more serious subjects mixed with more over the top and goofy aspects of the setting. The big time skips gives ample opportunities to tell stories both big and small so I don't really see no reason to rush into a post new vegas timeline because while I do think NCR worked great in new vegas as a counter force to the legion, there's no real denying that any timeline past new vegas would have NCR as the dominant force in the west part of the USA because there's nothing big enough to threaten it.
I utterly despise the idea of turning what's essentially a fun action adventure game into a gritty survivalist game .. with shitty crafting. Fallout was never a about gritty survival, again new vegas hit the good spot with it's hardcore mode. Overall, I think with all the current games out aside from the one we do not talk about, you already have enough to craft almost any type of story you want to tell.

-Gunhead

[GrosseAdmiralFox]

People forget that despite the entire 'light at the end of the tunnel' thing that the setting has, the entire setting is based upon a Hobbes/Locke outlook in general. Given that in New Vegas that -at the very least- the NCR is going to be having -at best- massive internal problems if not outright civil war, the only (canon) successful BoS chapter has a semi-feudal thing going on with a very Holy Roman Empire style system going on, the Institute is always destined to cause a Skynet because of their inability to see the Synths as sentient beings and all their little projects going to bite them in the ass if they survived and they're at best scattered to the winds in every other ending, Europe is probably made up of Metro-style wastelands at this point, China probably has a new bay where the Han Core used to be with a lot more lakes besides, oh and there is very little resources left on Earth in general alongside the possibility that there is still enough hardware to cause the destruction of humanity for good this time lying around either on Earth or in space...

House is right on one thing, humanity has to get into space in order to survive.

[FaxModem1]

People forget that despite the entire 'light at the end of the tunnel' thing that the setting has, the entire setting is based upon a Hobbes/Locke outlook in general. Given that in New Vegas that -at the very least- the NCR is going to be having -at best- massive internal problems if not outright civil war, the only (canon) successful BoS chapter has a semi-feudal thing going on with a very Holy Roman Empire style system going on, the Institute is always destined to cause a Skynet because of their inability to see the Synths as sentient beings and all their little projects going to bite them in the ass if they survived and they're at best scattered to the winds in every other ending, Europe is probably made up of Metro-style wastelands at this point, China probably has a new bay where the Han Core used to be with a lot more lakes besides, oh and there is very little resources left on Earth in general alongside the possibility that there is still enough hardware to cause the destruction of humanity for good this time lying around either on Earth or in space...

House is right on one thing, humanity has to get into space in order to survive.

I think you underestimate the NCR. They may be having corruption with a lot of brahmin barons dictating policy, and their open imperialism, but they are making things a LOT better for the western half of the United States, with things improving all across the board.

[GrosseAdmiralFox]

I think you underestimate the NCR. They may be having corruption with a lot of brahmin barons dictating policy, and their open imperialism, but they are making things a LOT better for the western half of the United States, with things improving all across the board.

No, the NCR is in a position where it has to 'turtle' for a few decades or collapse. It is far too overextended, has depleted resources far too quickly (the NCR is facing major water and energy shortages by New Vegas), and not going Early Rome and expand slowly due to it's available resources (Rome took a century to get to the Bay of Naples back when it was starting to unite all of Italy) and instead go the Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan of empire building (aka all the land at the fastest pace you can).

Oh, and the NCR is doing the equivalent of insanity because they're doing the same thing (a government similar to the pre-War government with it's own problems during it's initial beginnings) again without finding what was wrong and fixing it... and the fact that they're in a universe where Locke is pretty on the money.

[FaxModem1]

I think you underestimate the NCR. They may be having corruption with a lot of brahmin barons dictating policy, and their open imperialism, but they are making things a LOT better for the western half of the United States, with things improving all across the board.

No, the NCR is in a position where it has to 'turtle' for a few decades or collapse. It is far too overextended, has depleted resources far too quickly (the NCR is facing major water and energy shortages by New Vegas), and not going Early Rome and expand slowly due to it's available resources (Rome took a century to get to the Bay of Naples back when it was starting to unite all of Italy) and instead go the Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan of empire building (aka all the land at the fastest pace you can).

Oh, and the NCR is doing the equivalent of insanity because they're doing the same thing (a government similar to the pre-War government with it's own problems during it's initial beginnings) again without finding what was wrong and fixing it... and the fact that they're in a universe where Locke is pretty on the money.

I think after New Vegas, no matter who wins, the NCR will HAVE to consolidate their territory, due to having the Legion as a neighbor, and either having all of New Vegas in their territory, New Vegas as an independent entity to bargain and trade with, or the Legion to face off against.

Either way, you're seeing a society that is strained in providing power and water, and used to be one that was dealing with radiation poisoning, lack of food, violent raiders, super mutants, deathclaws, etc. And while doing that, it's still a society that allows criticism of it's policies, still has the general populace trying to do the right thing. And they've made a society that is at least equivalent to the 19th century, if not 20th century United States, only without slavery, gender discrimination, torture, or other social issues that the United States went through. So they are already progressing on that front.

Can it all fall apart? Yes, but the NCR does seem to be trying to deal with it's problems.

[Zixinus]

I think one mayor aspect is the need to turn around gameplay by playing as a genuine nomad. Say, a scout/forerunner/scavenger for a nomadic tribe or convoy. Rather than a lone survivor aiding static settlements.

The long stretch of areas could be partially random-generated, with key locations handmade. Players already scavenge and wander around a lot. This would integrate that. But instead of one favourite location like in Fallout 4, you'd have a variety of them.

After the apocalypse I'd imagine that there are long stretches of land that are not inhabited (by sapient people anyway) and would be interesting look on the Fallout universe, even going through areas we have visited in previous games.

[K. A. Pital]

For me, it would depend on which the direction in which they took the gameplay. I liked the old manner of conversations where there could be myriad options about different ways to solve issues, all of which were dependent on how you built your character. If they went back to that, I'd love to see a game set in perhaps Manhattan and surrounds. Or if they could leave the US, Moscow.

If the game goes down the weird survival FPS route it seems to be going, then Tokyo so you can go all out on the monsters.

Moscow? But comrade, Metro 2033 is already out.

[TheFeniX]

The setting doesn't matter in Fallout if all you're going to worry about is dealing with <Raider> and managing <Settler> with different accents.

Bethesda Fallouts fail from a storytelling and mechanical aspect. New Vegas was step back in the right direction, but it was also hamstrung by a dated engine and a release schedule.

For all people talked up Fallout 4 as an "epic and immersive storytelling experience" it was anything but. There's pretty much no area of the game (even the Main Story) that isn't filled with gaping plot holes, setting inconsistencies, mechanical issues and/or ridiculous amount of "boring."

For all the faults of Fallout 3, we can forgive many due to the time. But let's face it, the game came out after Mass Effect. Graphically, mechanically, storytelling-wise: it was a step far below a Bioware title.... but it had interesting ideas: a settlement built around a nuke, an aircraft carrier, kids only, the place where the kids go once they've grown up. They all had their own little microcosm of quests and content to do that AT LEAST made them feel unique and the people worth dealing with in some form. And they were spread out over the Wasteland.

What does F4 have? Megaton 2.0 (Diamond City) and two blocks over Good neighbor. Diamond city is a Quest hub in an MMO: vendors stand in damn near a circle and talk to you like your old friends but have nothing worthwhile to say, while random guards patrol asking if you lost your sweetroll, I mean, if you've seen synths, and <Citizen> does what <Citizen> does: walk around and say other stupid shit.

This is just a single example of a huge failing in immersion building in an open-world RPG. Skyrim might have laughably small cities, but it had CITIES. Cities with citizens, NAMED citizens, who have attitudes who can and do ask you to do stupid shit, or to fuck off. Whiterun alone has more world-building/content than Diamond and GoodNeighbor, and that's just one city out of many.

Mechanically, the games are way behind the time and deliver only the barest spasms of gameplay. It's a cobbled together mix-mashed of half-implemented ideas that fail to make a game. How it mashed with the story is the most damning part because, while they want you to keep ONE character and level him/her up to a billion: the story requires a hard cut when choosing factions. New Vegas does this, but the mechanics don't matter, and honestly the choices actually mean something.

tl;dr: I think worrying about WHERE Fallout is set is worthless because Bethesda doesn't even bother to write compelling stories with serviceable gameplay the experience them. It boils down to (literally) "isn't dropping nukes on people fun?" Yea, whatever: just don't act like this is anything more than open-world Duke Nukem.