Fallout Bible 202r27

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[yPArAH] Goris says he is relatively new to Vault 13 when the Chosen one speaks to him (rolled in about two months ago). This, I suppose, means he is not from Grutnar's pack. Is so, why is he intelligent, like otherEnclave-modified deathclaws? According to John Deiley (designer of Goris; worked on design for Vault 13, 15, NCR, and helped with numerous maps): Goris was Gruthar’s son, and he was one of the intelligent deathclaws. He was also very curious about the rest of the world. He did a lot of traveling to try and learn as much as he could about humans and their culture. To do this he disguised himself by wearing a rather large hooded robe. If questioned by anyone, he would claim that he was disfigured and needed to wear the robe. Anyway, when Goris meets the Chosen One, he says that he has only been at the vault for a couple months. This is because he just returned from one of his scholarly trips. He does not come right out and say this, but it is implied in the conversation through some dialog nodes. 3. [yPArAH] BTW, how did Goris survive the Franky's raid on the vault? John Deiley has an answer for you: When you talk to Goris he says that he is a traveling scholar. He is trying to learn as much as he can about the surviving cultures in the wasteland. Quite simply, he was on one of his many trips when Franky arrived to kick deathclaw ass. Of course, he could also have survived by becoming a member of the player’s party and actually making it to the end game. If memory serves me right, Goris is not the only intelligent deathclaw to survive. In the Navarro base the player finds another deathclaw that is slated for execution by Dr. Schreber. The player has the opportunity to free this deathclaw from captivity. Unfortunately, I can’t this deathclaw’s name. [Xarn, I believe - ed.] In any case, there is a chance that two intelligent deathclaws survived to continue on the species. I realize that they are both males, but that is fine. When they were engineered by the Enclave, the intelligence gene was made male specific and dominant. What this means is: Any intelligent male that mated with a non-intelligent female would (most likely) produce intelligent offspring. Here's a two-in-one from Alex Sinov (one of these questions was also asked by [LasTofThE] at the last chat): 4. Whi Does Goris Have A different Skin Color? and Goris' pets were dipped in FEV? (I'm guessing you mean Melchior's pets, but if you mean Goris' pets, send me an email.)

Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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According to John Deiley (designer of Vault 13 and Goris), Goris' skin color was most likely a result of him mutating differently (FEV mutates even the same critters with variations), and according to Jason Suinn (designer of the Military Base in Fallout 2) Melchior's pets were extra tough do to their exposure to the raw FEV in the military base - Melchior dipped them in FEV as part of his "magic." In addition, it was gauged by that time in the game that the players would be at a pretty high level, so they needed to be extra tough in order to pose a challenge. Melchior captured many of these creatures from raids on the surrounding wastes. They were not present when he overthrew the Enclave forces stationed at the base. Here are some questions and some points from Pawel Dembowski: 5. In F1 the Lieutenant said that the FEV raises intelligence. There are, however, very many dumb mutants. What can you say about it? And what do you think of my theory, which i've been using in my Fallout PnP campaign? Sorry, Pawel, for two things: I wasn't able to personally respond to your email because I kept getting bounced, and two, I wasn't able to comment on your FEV theory (as a reminder, I can't read fan-created material, so just send questions, comments, or facts if you can). As for the FEV enhancing intelligence, the original Pre-War FEV at West Tek did, and more consistently than the Fallout-era virus. The current Fallout-era FEV does enhance intelligence - in some people. Just not many. The Lieutenant was one of the lucky ones who didn't become a knuckle-dragging, butt-scratching moron after being dipped (and it may not have raised his intelligence, he may have been that smart before his dipping, but no records of his past exist to this). The FEV that was released out in the wasteland was mutated by radiation, so its effects changed. As for the FEV at Mariposa, the Lieutenant says the super mutants are smarter than humans ("We are highly intelligent and immune to disease"), which is only half-right, and he also says that the virus can also interfere with a person's memory, causing them to forget things. Obviously, the Lieutenant keeps forgetting that most of his super mutant forces can barely form complete sentences. Basically, the FEV in the vats only has a small chance of raising a being's intelligence (or even keeping it intact). The Master was one of the lucky ones. More often than not, it causes brain damage. It's also possible that the crude dipping procedure in Mariposa also caused imperfect mutations as well, reducing the chance of heightened intelligence. But to answer your question: the FEV at West Tek before the war caused increased intelligence in its subjects, but the FEV at Mariposa after the war rarely enhanced the intelligence of humans who were dipped. The reason for this is unknown. Chris Taylor says: Chris Taylor: Actually, a dip in FEV has a chance of modifying Intelligence, but it doesn't always increase it. Some people do gain increased intelligence, a larger majority lose intelligence and most people remain the same. It also depends if people have enough radiation damage to be turned into ghouls or super mutants. Here's a question from Andrew Quigley: 6. About how many working or servicable cars are there at the time of FO2? Obviously there must be more then one, since the guy in new reno has a garage fully staffed, and most likely has a large supply of parts( im assuming that was what the warehouse building next to the garage was filled up with, you couldnt pick up anything off of them) Probably not too many, but I don't know the exact number. The real problem isn't fuel, it's mostly tires and other degradable parts that have gone to the dogs in the past 100 years. For every two hundred or so people, there might be one working vehicle, and even "the local clunker" wouldn't be up to factory specs.


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NCR is rumored to have a mechanized vehicle division outside of its farming vehicles, but the number of vehicles in the division is unknown. The next question is from Darren Rowe: 7. Just a question about the Luietant from Fallout 1, was he a Brotherhood soldier that got dipped? Or was he just a mutant that got lucky and scored himself some nice armour (that looks a lot like PA) - Stainless He's a human that got lucky when he was dipped and managed to keep his intelligence (or possibly, got greater intelligence). As for armor and weapons, yeah, he lucked out, especially with that gatling laser. :) The next question is from DoPr: 8. Hi, In the last "Fallout Bible" update there was a question about Richard Grey and why he was exiled from Vault City. I that there was another person exiled from the VC - Leonard Boyarski. He also was exiled for a murder but I'm curious how did he die? I've found his grave on the Golgotha and it's quite surprising. ps. If there are any mistakes, sorry for my English. :-) Boyarsky was an in-joke to Leonard Boyarsky who originally worked on F1 and parts of F2 (one of the five billion developer references in Fallout 1 and 2). I think the name was originally Jason Anderson in the text, but I don't . Boyarsky was exiled for murder and unauthorized research (the research allegations revolved around some tampering with the pregnancy cycles in the Auto-Doc that apparently put all of Vault 8 in danger, but the details were deleted from the Vault 8 computer). His crime occurred many years after Grey's alleged crime, but Boyarsky only got as far as Reno with a traveling caravan before he was robbed and killed by Reno toughs who saw him as an easy mark (which pretty much is true for everyone traveling from Vault City). His reasons for traveling south were unknown, but it is rumored his original destination was east of Reno - even though explorers report there is nothing out there except desert and deathclaws. This next one is from John Olivas: 9. Hey what gives?!? You sent me a letter 3 updates ago saying my questions would be in the next edition of the bible. I asked about EC squadren and Renewing. Then I asked about what was up with something... It was a quest that couldn't be solved... I don't but it had something to do with not finding a peaceful solution. Oh yeah Melchior the magnificent. Then nothing. I've been patient but it's another update now. I know you're busy but I'm getting the idea I'm being ignored just because I'm not some mosquito asshole who won't leave you alone for five minutes, never logs off the forums and expects you to explain fusion power. Fusion power! You want an explanation: It's a game and it's tons o' fun! You explain it we'll give you a nobel prize! I'm asking stuff you MIGHT ACTUALLY know the answers to and I was told I'd get them. I can't help but feel it's some kind of strange eliteist thing where only big of the fallout community get any time. I used to be part of the fallout community and as luck would have it I was replaying Fallout2 when you started writing up the bible so I was buzzed. I still visit good ol' duck and cover all the time and I even have a couple of the wasteland news stories at the San andreas Vault to my credit. (Check it out I like em and i still get mail telling me they're the funniest thing people ever read. thought they were edited quite a bit for length.) But I'm just a little guy in the end. How about showing some love to the fan who's devoted but doesn't tear off his Blackisle shirt, pour a beer on his head and describe himself as "FRIGG'N HAAAAAARDCORE!!!! WOOOO!!! WOOO!"? Thankyou for your time and I'd like to add nothing was meant in uh... bad humor though after re-reading it I think some of it could be construed that way (unless that would get me an answer). Just adding this to be safe because I don't like to use incessent smilies. - John Olivas Just a reminder to anyone who sends me an email: I'm human, and I forget stuff. Otherwise I would rule the universe right now. To answer your Melchior question, I can't find any documentation for any planned quest to reunite Melchior with his son, and after talking to Jason Suinn (designer of the area), there was never a quest in place for it. His son was just included in Redding to foreshadow Melchior's presence and to clue the


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player in that Melchior was a kidnapped miner from Redding. As for the super mutants in the Mariposa base, it was just intended as a combat location, so the dialogue was never planned, at least as far as I can see in the documents. And here's the follow-up to the question above: 9b. Hey thanks for answering. You probobly can't find the other questions because I was at my bro's when i sent em. I asked about what happened to some of the fallout 2 npcs after the game. We know myron gets stabbed by a jet addict ironically in the den. And Marcus goes off to go do some heroics of his own. But what about cassidy, sulik and the EC squadren to name a few. Cassidy and Sulik: Can't say, no documentation exists. To be honest, I'll probably leave their fates open, since I don't want to pigeonhole two of the most favorite NPC allies from Fallout 2. I kind of hope that Cassidy eventually got his heart meds, though. At last word, Sulik returned to the primitive tribe for a few moons (months) after breaking paths with the Chosen One, then headed east in search of his sister. Cassidy went on to search for Texas, breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow. The punks on the tanker also survived, and they had a great view of the Poseidon oil rig exploding. They eventually into an uneasy trading relationship with the Shi after the destruction of the Hubologists, and the two groups went on to make San Francisco a major fishing and trading center. And here's the follow-up to the follow-up above: 9c. The other question was about renewing. I had always killed the rat God before I got to necropolis. Now I know (as of about 3 days ago actually) that renewing was the term the ghouls used for becoming truly human again. (I had just asked what it was before and what the heck the ghouls meant.) Any further info on renewing would be much apreciated. (though I don't expect you to explain how to actually do it or anything it remained pretty vauge in fallout2 and I just couldn't find a way to get it to happen. Everytime I tried to optimise the plant Vault city would wipe out the ghouls. Was it actually doable or just a clever ruse from the brain to take over the world? (he never did in my games and i didn't have to do anything to stop him, like in the cartoon his plans fall apart on their own I suppose) Thanks for your time once again. It was not possible for the ghouls to "renew" in Fallout 2 - it was part of the Brain's plans to get them human again (under his control). It is possible to save Gecko and VC - one of the walkthroughs on the Fallout fan sites should have info on it. And here's what the Brain specifically has to say about Renewal: The Brain: Well as part of my plan to rule the world I intend to reward my Ghoul followers by finding a way to restore their humanity. Chosen One: How are you going to do that? The Brain: When I unite Gecko and Vault City under my rulership I will dedicate Vault City’s medical labs to finding a way to reverse the effects of radiation that turned the people into Ghouls. They will be renewed, reborn, as humans once again. And:

The Brain: In order to take over the world I have to make sure that there’s something worth taking over. I need to build a strong powerbase using Gecko and Vault City. Chosen One: A rat plotting to take over the world? The Brain: Well, despite your feelings about a rodent ruling the world; the actions I propose would benefit thousands of Vault City and Gecko’s citizens. You may not care for me or my motives but the results are still well worth working towards.


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Also, according to designer Matt Norton, "renew" was also a reference to the movie (and book) 'Logan's Run.' A three-part question from Ed: 10. Some anal-rententive bits about the Bible. You don't have to answer this email at all - just stick the answers in the Bible, if you think they're worth answering. If you already have the answers, and they're in the pipeline for a future update, feel free to tell me to stuff it. a. Anything in the design docs on when that tree began growing out of Harold's head? I ask this because the timeline in the latest bible update says that Harold shook his head a lot when he settled in Gecko (2238). Nothing in the design docs - Harold first started noticing it when he touched the southern boundary of the Fallout 2 world map on his way north (after reconciling the skags and the Hubbers at the end of F1), and it's been growing slowly ever since. Its roots are going to start burrowing through his empty eye socket soon. b. A quote from Summer, 2066: "Nearly thirteen years later, few sections of the United States were supplied with fusion power." Since the Great War broke out in October, 2077, I guess this would be technically true, as the the Poseidon platform (and maybe the vaults) would still be using fusion power in 2078. Assuming, of course, that's what the statement is meant to say. My error. This will be fixed. I meant to say "Nearly eleven years later." Here's the correction: (BTW, a third revision of the timeline will be in some future update, just not this one.) YR 2066

MONTH Summer

#

EVENT Adding further insult to the Chinese-American relations, the first crude fusion cell is unveiled, one of the results of the Power Armor project. Devices designed for the fusion cell begin to be manufactured. Incorporating fusion power into the general US infrastructure begins, but the process is too slow to supply power to the regions that need it. Nearly eleven years later, few sections of the United States were supplied with fusion power.

c. In the timeline, Mariposa was supposedly constructed on Jaunary 7, 2077, but FEV research has been going on there since May 9, 2075. Did I misread this? Again, my error. The new timeline fixes are: 2075

May

9

FEV experiments continue at West Tek with batch 10-011, in the wake of successful tests on flatworms, the flatworms exhibit increase size and heightened resistance to viral contagions. Experiments with insects have less success, and further experimentation on insects is postponed by Major Barnett. FEV experiments continue at West Tek with batch 10-011, with white mice as subjects. Increased size, muscle density, and intelligence are noted.

2075

June

30

2076

January

12

Splicing in several new gene sequences into their test virus, dogs are injected with batch 11-101a at West Tek. Although increased strength was noted, increased intelligence was not.

2076

April

15

Once all secondary tests and studies are done on the test subjects, all dogs from the batch 11-101a FEV tests at West Tek are terminated... from a safe distance.


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A question from Dan Vondrak: 11. Dan Vondrak: So if Richard Grey was from Vault 8 and was old enough to be exiled for murder, wouldn't he have know about what Vaults were, and maybe even where other Vaults were located. But the bible says the Master finds out about the Vaults from the Boneyard Vault. Almost making it sound like he never knew about these Vaults before. Unless the mutation into the master made him forget, that makes sense I guess..? Or am I missing something obvious. Nope, he knew other Vaults existed - he just didn't know where, and he didn't realize that the prime normals within these vaults would be so FEV-friendly until after a lot of experimentation. The only "discovery" the Master had was the realization that if he could find sealed vaults, then the specimens within would not be as contaminated as the ones he's tried to experiment on since. He knew about the Vaults, but he didn't realize at first the connection between radioactivity, the FEV mutations, and the potential of the prime normals Vaults have. Anyway, here's the revised timeline entry to avoid confusion: 2155 1256

After capturing a caravan of vault dwellers, Master learns the location of the Boneyard Vault, the future site of the Cathedral. He conquers the inhabitants and sets up operations there, and the human cultists begin to use the Vault as their powerbase. Within the Vault, the Master begins to send out patrols to Vault locations in search of these other Vaults.

One from Rutie: 12. BTW about the Fallout bible: In the timetable (under year 2090) Harold is mentioned as "now Human". Are you sure that it should not be: "Harold (at that point human)" or "Harold (now adult)" (in reference to the Vault experiments). Sorry if I have misunderstood it. Best Regards and best of luck - Rutie Got it - here's the revised timeline entry to avoid confusion: 2090

Vault 29 opens. Harold (currently human) sets out to make his fortune as a trader, making the circuit around the survivalist communities in the wasteland.

One from Sean McGrorey: 13. There's a bounty hunter to the west of the Followers of the Apocolypse compound with a suspiciously familiary name. What's his story in the Fallout universe? Where did he come from? It's just a joke from Jess Heinig, one of the programmers. It's one of the five billion developer in-jokes in Fallout 1 and 2. The fellow [Avellone] has no past, and no future. Two from Tatu Ahponen: 14. One thing - what's happened to Junktown? Was it just too little to be it's own state? Or maybe it has managed to survive as an independent enclave inside NCR, a hive of scum and villainy, so to speak. And what kind of folks would live in Glow? After all, that place must still, well, glow, at least somewhat. Ghouls? Junktown became part of NCR as part of the state of Shady, and it was one of the first provisional states, considering it was one of the first (and most trustworthy) of the Shady Sands trading partners during its early formation. Its alliance with Shady Sands did cause some alarm from the caravans in the Hub, but it didn't hurt the Hub communities any... and the Hub eventually became part of NCR as well. As for the Glow (or the state of Dayglow), most of the state is actually north and west of the glow, but they are still able to see the Glow from their borders. A number of ghouls are rumored to live there now, as part of the Great Migration from Necropolis - once the ghouls learned of West Tek, they were eager to see if they could scavenge technology from the abandoned center. Some ghouls formed partnerships with scavenging companies from New Adytum and the Hub and have built quite a profitable corporation from their salvage efforts. At least one super mutant, a refugee from the Cathedral, was also rumored to be


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working with the ghouls and humans in Dayglow. 15. Another thing. While FO1 ending animation suggests Hub is destroyed, it still seems to exist. Has it been rebuilt, or did it survive, no matter what was said in FO1 ending? In latter case, is there a chance Followers of Apocalypse also survive? The Hub survived F1, and last word was the Followers of the Apocalypse also survived, using their knowledge to help the Blades of New Adytum. Here's one from Skjalg Aka. NeXor: 16. Have you got anny idea who made the "Moo, MOOO, I say" Special Encounter?? If you meet him, tell me i think its the best thing in Fallout!! - Skjalg Aka. NeXor It was an old joke from a MUD that Tim Cain used to play in - he apparently made a habit of teleporting cows into his rival's private chambers; the cows would say things, like "Moo, I say." Chris Taylor heard the story, and he thought it was funny enough to put in Fallout, so there it is. And here's it directly from the two of them: Tim on Cows that go Moo: Not to beat a dead cow, but yes, the talking cows in Fallout are a tip of the hat to my favorite MUD ever, the Darker Realms. However, it was not my idea to put them in. Chris Taylor had heard me talk of the Snow Cows and how I liked to teleport them into Mike's work room (hmm, I guess I was flippant) for fun. Chris did most of the random encounters in Fallout. Chris Taylor on Snow Cows: Were they snow-cows by any chance? Tim Cain used to be on a MUD that had snow-cows that said "Moo, moo I say." and I laughed so much when he told me that story, I had to put them in... Here's one from Uber Dog: 17. Anyway in the fallout bible chat you asked if we were wondering about spefic animals and extincatioon, and I know this might sound odd, but I was basing it on a storyline for a fot campaign set in africa I was making, So I was wondering what is the status in the fallout world of hippo's, elphants and penguins? Penguins are dead, elephants and hippos are unknown, and there's no documentation on whether they are alive and kicking or not. Feel free to play around with FEV and species survival to suit the story. Mutated hippos would be interesting. Mutated penguins probably wouldn't be. BTW, I suppose I shouldn't be hyping other games, but if you're interested in checking out some cool things you can do with hippos check out VR1's Lost Continents: http://lostcontinents.vr1.com/images/newsletter/hippo_big.jpg For anyone doing fan fiction or campaign stuff for Fallout, my recommendation would always be to do whatever makes the story or campaign better - strict adherence to the Fallout genre might kill some good ideas for a story or (in role-playing games) lessen a cool playing experience for your players. One from Anti-Hero from the Fallout Forums on BIS: http://.blackisle.com/forums/ 18. I know there are slavers in Fallout 2, but where are the slaves? Sure we see them in the pens being kept captive by the slavers, but you don't see allot of them in houses or around cities. I don't think allot of people can afford slaves. And the slavers certainly seems rather large of a group, how do they make all that money and get all those recruits by selling slaves in the high-peak of poverty? And even if people can afford slaves, what would they do with them? Make them farm? I certainly think not because there isn't allot of farming going on with the radiated and dead soil the Fallout world sports. Or what about


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growing drugs? If the drugs of Fallout wore grown (which they aren't) then it would tie in with the Fallout problem, but since they are made chemically in gang-owned labs, the slaves aren't needed for drugs either. You can pick up that Vault City has slaves, but why would anyone buy slaves just to do the chores around those small houses of theirs? What about the mines in Redding? No, I think not. The miners in Redding are paid from what I can gather (talk to the slut in the bar, and by picking the right dialog options she sais her miner boyfriend is not getting payed enough or something like that). There are allot of sluts in Fallout, but I find it hard to believe that they are slaves since the pimps would have a hard time keeping track of them (unless they confined them to their rooms in the whore houses). So, what the hell do the slaves in Fallout do? There are slaves in F2, you just don't see them too much except in Reno, random encounters, and in sections of the Den, VC, and (outside of) NCR. The markets for slaves include Vault City (who can easily afford slaves), caravans (who have enough cash to buy some porters to help carry stuff... plus you can sell the slaves at the end of a caravan drive), various farmers (who can sometimes afford one or two slaves), and Reno (those crime families make a killing), and as for prostitute slaves, there's usually one pimp for every 5-10 prostitutes, which isn't far from the real world model, I believe. BTW, sorry about this, but I don't post in the forums too much; it's hard to find the time. I do try to check out the Fallout forums when I can. Five or six questions from Jonathon Forbes in Dublin: 19. I just thought I would drop a line about this hole Fallout Bible thing...........I have followed the Fallout saga since the first demo came out on a Disc on a PC mag and have loved it since.......you probably already know about all the clans and fan sites knocking about on the net and I'm sure that the news of yet more Fallout related material is on the horizon.....Right then enough of the remenising crap time to get down to business........ Here are a few questions that I have gathered up that you might be able to answer in the Bible and could lead to other things..... 19a. The people that were outside the vaults when the bombs droped...how did they survive the bombs?? 19b. How did the brotherhood initaly start off as in persons, places?? 19c. What happened to the rest of the world ...Europe, China, Russia, etc...?? 19d. Were did the brotherhood get there resources to construct there main base ....who was the brains behind the operation...?? 19e. Who started some of the settlements such as the Hub, Reno City, etc...?? 19f. What happened to the rest of the military personel..?? 19g. What happened inside the vault when they had found out the overseer had been killed by our hero..?? a. Some areas of the world were not hit by nukes, and even though many cities promptly went to hell out of starvation and rioting (New Reno), there were still plenty of cubbyholes and old shelters for people to eke out an existence. Survivalists and some isolated military units in Power Armor (and other equipment) also were able to hole up and survive the Nuclear Winter that followed. b. The Brotherhood started off under the leadership of Captain Roger Maxson, when he chose to break off from the US military and lead the remaining soldiers and families away from Mariposa and to the Lost Hills military bunker back in 2077. c. This is a long answer, and I don't have it all together yet. :) Maybe in a future update, but not any time soon. I will say that there were some U.S. military units stranded in China when the big one happened. d. Actually, most of the resources were already there. Maxson directed the rebuilding efforts, and what supplies they didn't have, they either scavenged from nearby "dead communities" or from trading with the Hub.


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e. Founders: Kind of complicated, but I'll see what I can do in a future update. For right now, I can tell you that the Hub was founded by a fellow named Angus, beyond that - I'll see what I can dig up. f. Military personnel: Whichever ones didn't line up with the Enclave either died out or are camped out in the wastes somewhere in their own bunkers. With their Power Armor. And heavy weapons. And their own dark secret plans. g. In official Fallout canon, the Overseer wasn't shot to death. In an alternate future universe where he was, I imagine the people would have gossiped about the horrible brutality of the Vault Dweller and then they would have elected a less-useless Overseer to fill the now-empty position. One from Nick Steffel: 20. Was there ever a quest behind the grave-unearthings in Redding, or was it just (perhaps) a side-effect of the rats and Wanamingos traipsing around underground? It was just a hint of what the Wannamingoes were up, too - no big mystery, unfortunately. Two questions from David HAHA/Sand Hammer: 21. What happened to the BOS? In Fallout 2 they've all but disappeared. You only encounter small "spy" outposts each guarded by a single man in tesla armor and all but one of these outposts are nothing more than a room with a desk in the center. So what happened? They seemed too powerful in Fallout 1 to have fallen apart. Did they not attempt to advance their technology or expand? Why did they do nothing more than watch the Enclave? A cold war type thing between the two would have been...interesting. Nothing happened to the Brotherhood of Steel - the outposts/bunkers in F2 were just intended as listening posts. The Lost Hills bunker down south (Fallout 1) is their main base of operations; they just haven't expanded as far north as F2, or at least brought as much of their weapons and armor. The metal armored fellows you encounter in the bunkers are mostly scouts and lesser paladins assigned to watch the region. As for watching the Enclave, well, the Brotherhood's road has always been one of caution and gathering proper intelligence before taking action - sometimes too much so, as in Fallout 1. So why didn't they attack the Enclave? Well, the Brotherhood couldn't have survived an attack by the Master's army (as hinted in Fallout 1 - although they would have caused a lot of casualties to the Unity) - now imagine an army that's smarter, composed of hundreds of soldiers armed with advanced versions of Power Armor and guns that rival the Brotherhood of Steel, and I don't blame them for watching and looking for a vulnerability in this new foe. Anyway, they haven't fallen apart, and by the end of F2, the BOS was alive and active in the southern regions. 22. Ah yes there is ONE more thing actually...those darn geckos. Where did they come from? They were non-existent in Fallout 1 while in fallout 2 they seemed to be all over the place and as Harold would put it: "You couldn't fart without hitting one." They stemmed from an unknown species of lizard indigenous to the Oregon-California boundary that sucked up enough FEV to grow bigger, stronger, and faster - and they're definitely not sterile. While it took them a few generations to get all their new genetics straightened out, they started breeding slightly less than FEV-influenced rats. No one knows what lizard stock they originated from, or how the fire geckoes sprang into being. One from Stefan S Babicz: 23. i was curious about the master. i read that the master "absorbed" people in to him, and that is what s for the different voices he has. but when he says a certain line (the line where he debates who is best suited for living in the wasteland), he ends with a computer generated voice saying "mutants." i was curious how the master was able to make the voice (ie. wheather he was


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able to "absorb" and incorporate computers like a cyborg being or if a computer just said it instead of him). i'm not going to lose sleep over this one, but hey, this IS the fallout bible, right? -fatt Well, from what I can gather from the Grey's/Master's audio diary, he gained the ability to neurolink into the Cathedral computers, so the computer "voice" is just one of the people he absorbed channeling his voice through the computer. I suppose I could attempt some pseudo-science explanation for it, but it makes me confused just thinking about it. One of the 5 million questions from Deadlus: 24. I found in master.dat picture, COLUSA, it was one more special encounter like EPA, Primitive Tribe and Abbe wchich BIS didn't have time to add it to the game? Colusa was the old name for "Navarro," so it wasn't another location, just a pre-existing location that got a name and location change. According to one of the lead designers, Matt Norton: "I that once we put all of the locations on the world map that we moved some of them around a bit to create a more even spacing of adventure locations. I don't if we moved the enclave's mainland base for this reason, but it's possible." That's what I recall, too, and considering how much dead space there was along the middle of the coast without the Primitive Tribe, that seems to it. The real Colusa is much farther east and a little south of Navarro. One from Peter Jackson (not the director of Lord of the Rings, to my knowledge). Among his other metaphor-laced comments, his end question is: 25. and why did you guys f*** up Fallout 2 with real locations??? fallout 1 didn't need any of those. it was cool to go to the Boneyard and find it was LA filled with dead bodies. getting to F2, it ruined it to see all the places in California already there - post-nuke people would have named them differently anyway. I don't know why real world names were used in Fallout 2 for some of the locations. To the best of my knowledge (I wasn't at any of these meetings), Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky, Jason Anderson, Matt Norton, and Jason Suinn all established the locations at the beginning of the Fallout 2 development cycle, and many of those locations (with the exception of Colusa/Navarro) remained true to those choices all the way to the end. Proverbius has an alternate answer for why super-mutants wear straps on their faces (a question answered from last time): 26. AS for an alternate answers to why mutants have straps on their faces.... http://www.vault13.net/articles.php?id=17 Chris Taylor says that the mutants have those straps to keep their faces on. Saint_Proverbius: Why did some supermutants have straps on their faces? Chris Taylor: To keep their face on, duh. And someone from the Vault 13 chat [sorry, can't find the email] has some issues with ghoulishness: 27. I disagree with making Harold not a ghoul. During Fallout 1 the name "ghoul" was not yet as widely used as in F2. Harold could have disagreed with calling his mutant kind with such a name (which is not very nice). When you ask him about the ghouls he says: {1102}{hrold302}{Mutants. Doesn't matter what they call themselves.}


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I think it doesn't necessarily mean that he's not a ghoul. It just means that he doesn't want to be called a 'ghoul'. He says, that the ghouls are mutants, just like him, and it doesn't matter how they call themselves. I think the name 'ghouls' was either created for them by the Necropolis ghouls themselves, or by people who considered them monsters. As he looks like a ghoul, i think he would be considered one by both. Ghouls are not like supermutants, they are not all the same. It's only a name for people twisted by radiation or FEV (or both). There may be ghouls created only by radiation, and ghouls created only by FEV. I also think, though Harold was mutated in the Vats, that if you say that all the ghouls were created by the FEV, then there isn't much difference between Harold and other ghouls. Chris Taylor wrote: >>Actually, a dip in FEV has a chance of modifying Intelligence, but it doesn't always increase it. Some people do gain increased intelligence, a larger majority lose intelligence and most people remain the same. It also depends if people have enough radiation damage to be turned into ghouls or super mutants.<< If so, then people dipped in the Vats can become ghouls instead of supermutants, if they are radiated. I think that easily matches Harold's case... Fallout 2: {100}{}{You see a particularly leathery-looking Ghoul.} {101}{}{You see Harold.} {102}{}{You see a very old but still spry-looking ghoul.} {172}{}{Put a sock in it ya smelly old ghoul. Goodbye.} Loxley (F1): {244}{LOX_69}{Harold? He's a good enough sort, for being a ghoul an all. Lives on the south side.} As you can see, Harold is called a ghoul in the game. Butch (F1): {233}{BUTCH46}{Alright, so it wasn't the Death Claw. But what would the mutants in Old Town want with our caravans? Unless it's some kind of conspiracy.} As you can see, there are more muties in the Hub Old town, not only Harold (though we don't see them in the game). And they are all called both 'mutants' and 'ghouls'. I think the point is that you call 'ghouls' only the ones that were exposed to 'wild' FEV in the air and radiation, and not the ones that were screwed-up results of dipping (like Harold and Talius). I think both kinds should be called 'ghouls', because, though they were created with different methods, the result is identical, and they were both result of radiation and FEV (ghouls of Necropolis are radiated people that were exposed to mutated FEV in the air, and Harold and Talius are result of dipping people with radiation damage - think this is what Chris Taylor meant). All good points - Tim Cain and Chris Taylor agree with you, and they say Harold's a ghoul. To quote statements within the past week:


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Chris Taylor: Ghouls are a type of mutant. Harold is a ghoul. He's also a little special. Super Mutants are humans with no or minimal radiation damage who have been exposed to FEV. Ghouls are humans with significant radiation damage exposed to FEV. Harold is, well, Harold. Tim Cain: I know we treated him as a ghoul, but not a Necropolis one. He may have been irradiated before or after. All I was that he went in there with the guy whose name I forget (the one who fell into the vat and became the Master), and only Harold came out. Harold's memory is totally whacked, btw. ...most people don't know when they get irradiated, so he [Harold] just may not know what happened to him. I do know that radiation and FEV do not mix. Mutants are immune to radiation effects, but an irradiate human is killed by exposure to FEV. So one thing is sure: Harold is not a mix of radiation and FEV. He's got to be one or the other, and I think he's a ghoul. According to Chris, ghouls are irradiated humans exposed to FEV. According to Tim, ghouls are due solely to radiation. Both agree Harold is special. And I don't mean handicapped. Officially: Ghouls are a mix of FEV and radiation. Harold is a mutant who resembles a ghoul. Harold may have had some radiation damage before he was exposed to FEV, but his mutation (outside of his surface appearance) makes him different than a ghoul. Most ghouls are the result of extreme radiation + FEV exposure, but Harold's change was due primarily to FEV exposure (again, he could have sucked up a few rads in the wastes without him knowing, especially considering how long he ran caravans in the wastes). He is hideously mutated enough so that he looks like a ghoul, but he's not technically one, and this is the mistake that Loxley makes (Loxley only judges a book by its cover, and he knows nothing about genetics or anything beyond a surface appearance). You can call him a ghoul if you want, but the official answer is: "Harold is Harold." Harold's special. BTW, glowing ghouls are ghouls that suck up too many rads after they have become ghouls. We originally wanted Lenny in F2 to be able to turn into a glowing ghoul when he drinks too much radioactive liquor, but we didn't put it in. One from Azael from the Fallout BIS message boards: 28. I'd really like to know this. Why did they become tribals in such a short time? Religious reasons? Drugs? Well, the long answer is read "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart. The short answer is: - 80 years is not a short time. - The Vault Dweller did not take any real books with him once he left Vault 13 for the last time. Guns and Ammo wasn't very helpful without more guns, the Scout's Handbook had some good stuff about making fires and tying ropes, the First Aid Handbook had its uses - but nothing high-tech, Dean's


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Electronics wasn't very useful without high-tech equipment, generators, and purifying systems to practice on, and the Big Book of Science only matters if you've got students willing to read through it and if it has practical applications, which in a farming community like Arroyo, isn't much outside of crop rotation. - There was no formal educational system in Arroyo, despite whatever efforts the Vault Dweller may have made in this direction. Too much energy was spent trying to create the community. - The Vault Dweller may have wanted to make a clean break from technology after the events of Fallout 1, especially considering his experience in the Vault, at Mariposa, the Glow, the Boneyard, and even at the Brotherhood. The BOS' adherence to technology in many ways is rather disturbing and narrowminded and hasn't really allowed them to become better "people." - While a few of Vault 13 followed the Vault Dweller, many other Arroyo inhabitants came from tribes across the wastes, and they had a large influence on Arroyo's development. The of Vault 13 that followed the Vault Dweller would also have had their hands full adapting to life in the wastes as well as building a community from scratch to teach any higher concepts about life in general. - The Vault Dweller, while skilled, may not have made a good teacher or even had the time for it. In any event, students may resist attempts at learning certain concepts, especially if the concepts have little practical or entertainment value. - When they established Arroyo, farming and "tribal" skills and know-how proved to be far more important than being able to calibrate the magnetic field housing in the turbo-plasma rifle. - As for why the player didn't have access to the Power Armor or super weapons from F1 at the start of F2, that was simply for balance reasons. Over 80 years, the items were broken (like the handgun in the elder's tent), hidden (the Vault Dweller may have tucked away the Power Armor or taken it with him when he left Arroyo), or their power or usefulness expended in constructing the Temple of Trials. BTW, the Temple of Trials was built on the ruins of an older Pre-War building, most likely a church. The carved head at the entrance and some of the carvings/wall decorations on the three sub-levels were done by the Arroyo inhabitants.

FALLOUT 2D IN COLOR

Martin sent me a color PIP Boy (though I had to crop it a bit). I'm kind of in love with the black and white version, though, but I thought I'd show you guys:


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FALLOUT 1 ARCHEOLOGY

Continuing the exciting trend of last time, here's some more key words you can ask the talking heads in Fallout 1 with the "Tell Me Abouts." This may not be a complete list, but these are all the ones listed in the design documentation. There is no documentation I can find for the non-talking heads, but if you happen to know any or find any other talking head key words I miss, let me know. There are some extras I've foundthat were added later that don't have any voice acting attached to them, but they still display a message. This week goes from Tandi at Shady Sands to Set and Harry at the Necropolis. Let's start with that cute little bundle of deserty goodness, Tandi: Seth City of Death Hub Junktown Town Well

Raiders Razlo Tandi Aradesh Khans

And now slow, slurring Harry: Children of theCathedral The Unity Necropolis Normals Watershed

Ghouls Set Lou/The Lou The Master

And now that dirt-nappin' norm-hating Set: Water Chip Water Shed/Watershed (one or the other) Brotherhood Hub Unity

The War Necropolis Mutants/Super Mutants Ghouls The Master Set

BTW, XLA from FV and V13 also showed me how to call up all the "Tell Me Abouts" in Fallout, I just haven't been able to snag the OBJ_DUDE.MSG file to make it happen yet. I'll probably print some corrections once I dissect it - thanks, XLA, much appreciated. BTW, if someone can point me to a pre-existing list of Tell Me Abouts, they will have my eternal gratitude. Take that for what it's worth.

FALLOUT 2 CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

This shouldn't surprise anyone who's played Fallout 2 with a party, but as your main character goes up in levels, so do your party . The rate they advance varies, but each character has a number of "stages" they advance through over the course of the game, usually based on their ability to learn. This week we'll give you stats for Cassidy, Myron, and Vic. I can actually provide skill levels for them this time. Note that in the skill screen shots below, their "tag skill" is highlighted on the PIP Boy screen.


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CASSIDY

VIC

MYRON

Note: Jason McCullough sent me the details I need to extract the skill files for the NPC allies (thank god), so if you can't wait for my lazy ass to post them in a future update, here's what you do: Head over to NMA: http://www.nma-fallout.com/pipboy2000le/prgs.html Get the following utilities and use them as follows: 1. Use DATMAN Light to extract the master.dat file, and extract the patch000.dat on top of it. 2. Find the NPC in pro_crit.msg (Vic - Stage 6 or whatever). 3. Use F*** [guess the queen mother four-letter word here] to open the .pro file in the proto/critters directory. It shows all the stats, and they appear to be correct. In any event, let's start with Cassidy, who's a four-stage character because he's cranky and old. And talks too much. His specialty is Small Guns.I designed him, and he'll always be one of my favorite F2 characters because of his sheer cussedness. And the fact he has funny floats depending on what type of chem or med you give him.


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CASSIDY STAGE 1

CASSIDY STAGE 2


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CASSIDY STAGE 3

CASSIDY STAGE 4


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Here's Myron (I accept the blame for deg him), who's a four-stage character because he thinks he knows it all already and doesn't need to advance too high. His specialty (drumroll) is Science, but usually he just ends up a brainless husk as his brain is ripped out and put into the Robobrain.

MYRON STAGE 1


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MYRON STAGE 2

MYRON STAGE 3


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MYRON STAGE 4

And here's Vic (designed by Black Isle's very own Dave Hendee), a six-stage superhero because he's an early-game character. His specialty is Repair.


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VIC STAGE 1

VIC STAGE 2


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VIC STAGE 3

VIC STAGE 4


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VIC STAGE 5

VIC STAGE 6


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FALLOUT 2 SECRET: MAGIC EIGHTBALL

The magic eightball is a secret easter egg of sorts that only works for high Luck characters; it's located inside the easternmost pool table on the second floor of the Shark Club in New Reno. You can use it any time to "answer questions," just like you would with a real magic eightball... except if you're really lucky, you'll get real answers that are actually helpful. If your Luck is less than 9, you won't get anything except the following messages (some of which courtesy of Tom French, master programmer): “Outlook good.” “Outlook not so good.” “My reply is no.” “Don't count on it.” “You may rely on it.” “Ask again later.” “Most likely.” “Cannot predict now.” “Yes.” “Yes, definitely.” “Better not to tell you now.” “It is certain.” “Very doubtful.” “It is decidedly so.” “Concentrate and ask again.” “My sources say no.” “Without a doubt.” “Reply hazy, try again.” “As I see it, yes.” “Stop shaking me so hard. It hurts.” “You have a strong right arm.” “Please wipe your hands before shaking me again.” “Temporarily out of service.” “Closed by the order of RPG Board.” “Keep shaking me, and there'll be trouble.” “I'm getting sick.” “Im getting nauseous.” “Your hands are warm.”


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If you have a Luck of 9 or 10, however, you start getting specific answers to your questions: “Your score is 23 out of 100. You have quite a ways to go yet.” “Scotty Everts sighs a lot when he sees how many inventory items are in the game.” “Go back and talk to Father Tully in New Reno after you have finished the game.” “There is an Easter Egg somewhere in New Reno.” “Stop shaking me so hard.” “Your LUCK is very high. Keep shaking me for clues!” “If you sell Bessie to the butchers in Modoc, you can set her free again.” “Pay attention to what Cody says after you return Mr. Nixon to him in Vault City.” “Feargus was against putting me in the game. He’s a big meanie.” “With the feuding couple in Broken Hills, the wife really did throw the Cat’s Paw in the trash.” “You need a high STR *and* END to have a chance of beating s in the arm-wrestling contest in Broken Hills.” If you have a Luck of 9 or 10, however, the following three messages also have a chance of popping up, and when they do, they activate three special locations in Vault City, New Reno, and Golgotha: “Look in the first floor men’s bathroom toilet in the Mordino casino in New Reno.” “Somebody buried some cash beneath the cross labeled ‘Trash’ in Golgotha.” “To activate the terminal in front of the Vault in Vault City, enter Code 3PCF186.” Once the eightball displays these messages, you can then go to the toilet in New Reno and dig out some grenades, go to the Vault City terminal to get some extra stimpacks, and go to the grave in Golgotha and get a few hundred bucks. These locations won't give anything until you see the message on the eightball. Thanks goes to Dan Spitzley for helping to program these encounters. There's one message missing from the list above - if you email me back what it is, I'll make you the big winner in the next update. In the original design, the eightball was also supposed to increase the frequency of special encounters as well as be a weapon you can throw, but we ended up axing that because the eightball was getting too filled with functionality. That's it for this update. Hopefully (no promises), the next update should be coming out two weeks from now (March 25th). Thanks for reading, Chris Avellone @ BIS


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FALLOUT BIBLE UPDATE 6 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 [email protected] 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


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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 ing 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 [email protected].

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://.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 . If you have any troubles with your Fallout disks or other Interplay games, you need to Interplay customer at one of the following addresses: For technical problems: [email protected] And for any other questions regarding Interplay products, barring hints and tips:

•

[email protected] The Amazing Fallout Bible: 7-10-02 Interplay/Black Isle Studios Page 2 of 51

•

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 on the Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale I (or II), Planescape: Torment, or Dark Alliance.


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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. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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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 , 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 . 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:


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2053

ZAX 1.0 goes on-line, developed by Vault-Tec. Initially a prototype of some of the systems designed to govern the vaults, it is given to the government to help the Department of Energy collect resource data. Within a year, it is taken by the military for plague and tactical research; one version, ZAX 1.2 is constructed for West Tek (below).

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 of the Vault (led by Lydia, the head of the "return to the surface" faction, and including her ers, 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)? 2162

May

12 Vault Dweller removes the Vault suit and from this day forward, never wears it again.

2162

July

10 Vault Dweller heads North with a small group of Vault-dwellers and wastelanders and founds the small village of Arroyo.

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 :)


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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. So there you are. 1c. In the undergrounds of Broken Hills there was (another) "dead vault women" :) (with no legs :), I know it is f. detail but you can always make something interesting out of nothing :) (but please, make her someone interesting not just someone from vault city! :) Sorry, there were no other vaults around; she's from Vault City - one of the many Vault City unfortunates who couldn't adapt to the harsh life of the wasteland. I do not know whether she had any legs while she was alive. 1cc. There was repair bot in klamath's underground, was it from that vertibird near the second repair bot / near the canyon? It's possible, but unlikely (vertibirds tend to carry only one Mr. Handy when possible). It was mostly like an old repair robot from the days when Klamath Falls was a real town. 1d. In Redding there was a corpse(under some rocks) of a man in vault suit, from where he, and how did he get there (and died)? He's another sucker from Vault City, possibly having come in on a caravan. He could also be a fugitive Enclave scientist or worker, since they wear Vault suits, too, but this is unlikely. 1e. Vault doors were in the tanker in San Fran, from which vault are they, and who brought them onto the ship? They are unmarked models, planned for shipment somewhere up or down the West Coast. The "Vault Doors" were used for more than just Vaults, however, so the door may have been intended for some other facility. It's most likely just there because of designer caveat/designer privilege/game logic - the designer probably just needed something to fill up space in the tanker, and the door looked like good "junk." 1f. Bible is updated again and its been a while since I've sent those qustions.... (answer, please) O, and one new question Is EPA and the other locations that weren't added to FO2 in master.dat or somewhere are finshed (Because you can replace one of the existing towns with ex. EPA, but I don't haven't got time to check this) ? No - they were never finished. I posted the original design for EPA, below (much, much farther below), if you want to see it. There's not one for the Abbey or the Primitive Village that I can find.


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1g. How did that guy from New Reno Arms get vault-tec speech module? And how did that friend of Vic ( from vault city ) get the "vault13 flasks" ( I don't remeber that it was explained in FO2 )? Oh, and why Enclave didn't do anything about master after he took vault-tec demonstration vault? BTW. How did master move, he's just a big peace of crap! 1. Vault-Tec speech module: He got it from a traveling merchant (similar to how Vic got the V13 water flask). Eldridge likes to collect old Pre-War relics and throw it in his basement to keep Algernon amused - and in the hopes the kid will build a nuclear missile he can use to hold all of New Reno hostage. 2. Ed the Brahmin Dealer may have traded with some of the Vault 13 refugees from Vault 13 when they left the Vault after the Vault Dweller at the end of Fallout 1, or one of the V13 refugees may have traded with a random caravan master that eventually sold it to Ed. Again, it was mostly a plot device carrot, and no documentation exists. 3. The Enclave didn't even exist as an idea in Fallout 1 (to my knowledge), so they never really factored in to any of the events in Fallout 1. 4. I have no idea how the Master was moved. It was probably either by a large (steam) truck or caravan, but I don't have any specific information on how he was moved. I doubt a caravan could do it unless Grey was much smaller and, uh, less "spread out" than he was at the end of Fallout 1, which is entirely possible, but he sounded pretty fucking mutated in his audio diary in the Military Base. Maybe they poured him into in a toxic waste barrel and transported him that way. I haven't found an explanation in F1 anywhere – so if anyone finds one before I post an answer, let me know. One from Pasi Eronen in Finland: 2. I'd like to know more about the player modeling behind the surface of the game. The reason for this is that I am participating a course in CS, which is titled Adaptive Learning Environments. In this course I have group work with my colleagues er modeling in Computer Games. Apart to theory part, it would really help us a lot to hear also, how this is done in reality - in true gaming environment. Especially in Fallout 2, there was huge difference in the story line, depending on the way one played. I playing once in a bit morbid way, digging up dead people and blazing my way through events. I didn't pay me in the end, or well, depends how do you see it.. :) Usually events that one encountered were more pleasing, when playing it more ethically "correct" way. In my opinion, this kind of reflection of one's behaviour to whole scene in the game were one the best things in the game. If you would have some time to answer me and kindly reveal some of the tricks and techniques used behind the scenes, I'd be really happy for that! There really isn't any trick to it, just mostly a lot of grunt work (though fun grunt work). Essentially, what needs to be done (and I'm using an NPC's dialogue as an example), you essentially write one dialogue that's three to four dialogues in one, and you do "character checks" at various points to see where the dialogue goes (i.e., if your Intelligence is low, you go here, if your Speech skill is high, you go here, if you're carrying a gun, you go here, and so on). It's a lot of work, and it requires that you design out all three to four of those paths completely so each player type gets a different experience. For quests, you do the same thing - you design it (at least) three different ways so a player of different skills can solve it. I don't know if you're familiar with a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, but that's what the game really boils down to - it's just a big Choose Your Own Adventure, where the designers try to plot out every possible path the player can take in as much detail as possible. Game logic and development parameters usually prevent you from being able to design out quest solutions with as much freedom as you would have in a pen-and-paper game, though.


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One from Richard M. Lippincott: 3. Perhaps you can answer the question of whether Fallout is set in an alternate timeline or not. By alternate timeline, I mean a world where some part of our history up to now was different then what we know. It seems many fans are inclined to believe this view. Some who claim to be "in the know" and say they've seen the original design documents for the first game this view. However, I've noticed no such evidence in the Fallout Bible. Fallout takes place in an alternate timeline. There's no documentation about exactly how and when it diverged (and this will never be addressed in the Fallout Bible - see above), but it did. You will have to take it on faith. Sebastien Caisse (BIG WINNER #1) sent me a correction: 4. John Deily mentions that he [Melchior] got his pets from outside... however aren't they locked in?... No, that was my fault (John is blameless). I forgot the Enclave had sealed off the base. Melchior's pets probably came from (now collapsed) side caverns in the Military Base (kind of like those mutated pigrats running around). Sorry about that. I need to research the Military Base some more, so if I find anything different, I’ll let you know. A question from Steelface the Hunter, who has a scary name: 5. What is the deal with the retinal scanner from the docks in San Francisco, and all those guys blumbering about some submarine. The retinal scanner was just there for show. As for the submarine, that's a longer story. As mentioned in Fallout 2, the Shi (or more specifically, Dr. Fung) say that they are descendants from the crew of a Chinese nuclear submarine (the Shi-huang-ti - the remains of which were used to help build the Palace in San Francisco). This submarine was supposed to play a larger role in Fallout 2, but it was axed because the game was too big as it was. Basically, it was another stage to "get the tanker ready" quest - basically, there was this old Chinese submarine buried beneath in the waters of San Francisco, and if it detected any American vessel coming anywhere near it, its automated defense system would fire its missiles at the vessel and DESTROY it. So the intention was for you to find some deactivation code to disarm it before you could take the tanker safely to the Enclave. An inevitable consistency question from Bud Klein: 6. Last update, you said there were 1/200 cars/people ration in the NCR. If there were so many working cars in NCR, where were they? They’re there. It’s game logic. You don’t see them for the same reason NCR is only three maps, only has 1 councilor/senator, and only about 40-50 people in its city limits. That’s why the Chop Shop in Reno exists, why the bum outside of NCR offers to watch a car for you before you show up in one, and a reason that NCR built a garage in Shady Sands. So to explain "game logic" in this instance, there’s nothing precious about building a car of your own if you can steal one – or if somebody else in town has one. Or in the words of one designer (me), “there's no good reason why a PC would want to undertake a fucking huge Fed Ex quest to rebuild one if they can jack one from the locals.” The last part is especially true considering town-wide mass murder is possible in both Fallout 1 and 2. And before you get the image of tanks and jeeps flying around everywhere with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, most of that junk is old tractors and crap like taxis, old buses, snowplows, and even old construction equipment. It's possible that mysterious old steam-truck mentioned in the bowels of the F1 data archive is still lumbering around somewhere. The caravan houses of the Hub, in particular,


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around the time in Fallout 2, have been looking to further its trade influence, and new vehicles (and types of transport, such as trains, boats, or barges) have been eagerly sought after for carrying large amounts of trade goods vast distances. Good ol' human greed will move mountains. Or at least rebuild things that can. Once they learn of the Enclave's presence in the North, they are likely to have huge bounties promised for vertibird plans - or better, a working vertibird. One from Steel Knight... 1. In FO2, the random encounter cafe of broken dreams Tandy says Ian is some ware in FO2 is this true and if so, ware??? Tandi is a big fat liar. Ian was originally intended to be in Fallout 2 (as a very old guy in the Den), but it was scrapped near the end because there were (in our opinion) too many characters making repeat appearances already. If I can dig up his old dialogue at some point, I will. Two (and then four more), from Albert. 1. Who owned the dog named Sasha that appears as an easter egg? At the cathedral there's a dog outside that you can't get to, but whose description says that she's a Siberian Husky faithfully awaiting her owner's return. Then in the Den, one of the things that the addicts were yell periodically is "Sasha!". Which of the developers owned Sasha? Sasha was owned by Vince Denardo, one of the producers here at Interplay (he didn't work on Fallout, but he was friends with many of them - he produced Conquest of the New World, among other titles). I think Dave Hendee said: Dave Hendee: Sasha is the name of one of Interplay's old producers, Vince Denardo. He did not work on Fallout 1 or 2. It was a bit of tradition to have is dog somewhere in an Interplay game, in some shape or form. Sasha is normally placed in the special thanks section or some other place in most of our older manuals. 2. How do the raiders continue as organizations over the years? Do they recruite people or do they have kids of their own? I ask because you never see any raider kids and it seems to me that raiders would not be good at raising kids and keeping them healthy. It's mostly for game logic reasons (kind of like the fact NCR is only 3 maps, has 1 councilor, etc, etc.). You try not to put kids in places where there's going to be gunfights, because they tend to get caught in the crossfire and before you know it, you've got the Childkiller Perk. Also, if you're playing the English version, then some kids are removed for localization purposes. But, if Fallout took place in the real world, raider kids would exist. Raiders add to their numbers through press-gang tactics, captives from raids, crushing the spirits of slaves and drafting them, and having children of their own. They also add to their ranks by attracting neer-do- wells across the wastes. It's a rough life, but raiders do sometimes have kids and families with them in the band, even if they don't always take them on raiding missions. And because no good question can have a true answer, here are four more, from Albert. My interest in the raiders has been perked. Specifically, I'm wondering about their culture (if you can call it that). First off, I'm going to include a section on the Vipers that I found in some old design documentation by Scott Campbell; the Khans you already met in Fallout 1, but the Vipers are the other side of the coin. It may help answer some of your questions - basically, raiders are a pretty varied bunch. 1. What sort of religion, or at least superstitions, do raiders have? It varies - there's no one overall religion for all raiders. Some have none at all (Khans) while others (the


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Vipers) are zealots. In some regions of Fallout, "raiders" blur into "tribals," so there are raiding bands of tribals that have a number of bizarre customs, including eating fallen opponents, ancestor worship, sun/nature worship, and so on. Usually, however, raiders are just violent assholes begging to be shot. 2. Do they have any real culture or customs? I know that raiders like the Vikings and Monogolians did. Again, it varies, depending on the raider band and depending on the region. It can be something as simple as survival of the fittest, with the strongest raider ruling everyone else (Garl), and occasional codes of conduct such as "never surrender to the law," "never leave witnesses," "never bargain with a town or caravan master," to a complex set of customs and rituals (such as the Vipers). 3. On the subject of their families, do raiders ever marry (or have an equivalent to it). You mentioned that they would have families, but if both ma and pa are out on a raid, who takes care of the kids? Does someone stay behind? They can marry, if they choose to honor frontier law or follow a religion, but others simply take mates or partners for a period of time, then switch around - on occasion, the leader of a raider band has the sole pick of any of the (usually) opposite sex in the camp. Some raider bands take women and children from towns in the wastes, or from caravans, which keeps their numbers up. Over time, these slaves become assimilated into the band - often they have nowhere else to go. This happens in slaver bands as well. As for kids, if they can carry a gun and shoot it, they are sometimes brought with the raiders, to teach the young ones about the "life" early - in some raider bands, going on the first raid is a rite of age for children. Younger children are left back at the camp with a few of the raiders - not all raiders always participate in an attack. 4. How do they minimize violence and infighting in their camps? Depends - some camps don't, which is probably why there's not a larger amount of raiders prowling the wastes. Usually the presence of a strong leader prevents arguments from erupting too frequently - or allows for controlled violence, where disputes are settled before the leader, usually with a fist or knife fight. Furthermore, it's in the raiders interest to police their own - the life of a raider is tenuous, and troublemakers need to be dealt with swiftly. Furthermore, a number of raiders are free to sate their violent urges on the towns and caravans they prey on, which helps a bit. Otherwise, violence and infighting usually comes down to fist or knife fights in camp (especially if alcohol or drugs are present), and either no lasting wounds are inflicted, or else they are fights to the death, and the loser is left to die in the wastes.

RAIDERS IN GENERAL

In some ancient design documentation that I think was written by Scott Campbell, one of the original designers (I'm still checking if it was him, so I may need to print a retraction on the credits), there was actually supposed to be three groups of raiders: The Jackals, the Khans, and the Vipers. Not only did they raid local towns and caravans, but they also preyed on each other - as you'll see from the descriptions below, their behavior and habits in F1 dictated (or were dictated by) their name choice. The Jackals: The first clan, the Jackals, is your typical group of crazies. They have no morals except one: survival. They use group tactics to overmatch their enemies. They are craven cowards, though, and will not attack unless they know they can win. They band together in their hideaway and fight over the spoils.


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The Vipers: The second clan, the Vipers, are mysterious followers of an ancient religion (or so they claim). They usually only come out at night to hunt for food or to conduct raids. They are very ruthless when it comes to combat. They prefer stealth to strength. They usually carry bone knives dipped in Pit Viper venom. This poison, when in the blood stream, paralyzes the victim. Most victims captured in this way are taken back to their hideout. The Khans: The last group, the Khans, is probably the most dangerous. They live the lifestyles of Mongol warriors, raiding towns, burning what they cannot take and capturing the survivors for use as slaves. They usually travel in small scouting bands, but sometimes they roam as full war parties. The Khans above all else respect strength. 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). Anyone showing superior strength is worthy of their respect. The leader of the Khans is so because no one has beaten him in combat. One interesting thing listed in the original documentation is that all raider bands were supposedly all from Vault 15 after it opened, but they all splintered off into different groups from the overpopulated Vault. All of these raider groups officially exist in the Fallout universe, though only the Khans are in southern California at the start of Fallout 1. The handful of Vipers that survived Rhombus' campaign of extermination in 2155 fled North and East, following the same path the Jackals took after they had their asses handed to them by the Khans thirty years before.

THE VIPERS

Let's focus on the Vipers. Again, credit for the Vipers goes to Scott Campbell, I believe, currently at Contraband Entertainment, Inc. Look for their fine products wherever computer games are sold, and you will be ing one of the souls of Fallout development. BTW, no huge mutated Pit Vipers actually showed up in Fallout 1, so don't worry that you missed them. The leader of the Vipers, Asp, conducts their ceremonies and isters duties. The of the clan will follow his orders even if it meant death. Asp is usually in the same type of bone armor as the others, save he wears a snake skull as a helmet adorned with feathers and snakeskin as a cape. The Vipers are always dressed in bone armor. This armor, as the name implies, is made from strips of bone bundled around the body with strips of leather. All viper clan have crude tattoos all over their bodies. Exotic piercings are not uncommon. The Vipers usually carry bone knives, bone spears, and sometimes pistols. The Vipers hideout, or as they call it "The Shrine," is many small adobe buildings surrounding a large pit. This pit is where they conduct their religious ceremonies. The sacrifices are placed within the pit and several huge Pit Vipers slither out to claim their meal. Although it has never happened, if anyone were to escape the pit, the Vipers would let that individual go, claiming it was the will of the great Snake. Aside from Asp, there is at least one other personality mentioned as belonging to the Vipers' band, a woman named Cobra, a "Brewer" of the Viper clan, responsible for making the snake venom (or extracting it from the Pit Vipers), she has a son named Fang, and her husband died long ago. In the original design documentation, there was an adventure seed for any characters coming across Garl from the Khans - he would task the player to go kill Asp and take his ceremonial helmet and dagger. Although Garl prefers the direct approach, he knows the Vipers rival the Khans in strength, and if Asp is killed, it has a good chance of scattering the Vipers.


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Animosity: Both the Khans and the Jackals hate the Vipers, but the Khans and Jackals hate each other more than the Vipers, so there is a nice little hatred pecking order going on. Note: Some of the information below is dated, obviously, and does not reflect everything that happened in Fallout. I'm just including the original text so you can see it in all its glory. Background: 64 years ago, a man named Jonathan Faust led his group of about 200 people from the overcrowded Vault into the wastes of the outside. It was there that his small band came to a small oasis in the middle of the desert. In the middle of this oasis was a large pit, almost like a crater. While resting and setting up camp, Faust decided to look into the pit. Darkness greeted him. When a member of the band called out to him, Faust turned, startled, and slipped into the Pit. He slid down twenty feet and then fell another 20 and broke his leg in the process. As he lay there dazed, a half dozen gigantic Pit Vipers slithered toward him. Not knowing what these things were, Faust was terrified. The group above heard one loud scream and then nothing. Three others went to look for him, but never came out. The small band, leaderless and stuck in the desert with no food and water, decided to stay at the oasis, at least for a little while. They covered the pit with a tarp and nailed spikes around it to keep whatever horror lived there encased there. They then set up their camp as far from the Pit as possible. Whatever was down in the Pit never bothered them. Days ed. The more influential of the group argued about what they were to do. There was talk of ing up with others from the Vault. There was talk about going back to the Vault. During these four days, almost ¼ of the group was either dying or already dead. Those who survived the radiation poisoning were too weak to travel, while those who survived either left or stayed and helped defend the little settlement against the desert creatures. Finally, after a week, the remaining of the group decided to move on. They started to pack their belongings when an almost spectral figure emerged from the shadows. It was Faust, except this was not the strong leader they ed. He was wan, pale, and emaciated, and there was a feverish gleam in his eyes. He told them that when he was down in the pit, a god visited him and told him the True Way. They would make sacrifices to the Gods of the Pit, and wealth and happiness would be theirs. Of course, everyone was skeptical. Some were even violently rebellious, saying that Faust was crazy. After Faust patiently listened to them, he then whistled, and from behind him, came two very large Pit Vipers. Without warning, they struck. They attacked everyone in the group, including Faust, but he just laughed as they bit his flesh. As the sun rose the next day, the two snakes lay dead by Faust's hands. Half of his people were dead, the other half were on the brink of death as the Pit Venom started to sink into their systems. By that afternoon most would be dead, but the forty or so survivors of the venom were half crazy with the aftereffects of the venom. Faust, himself immune to the venom, helped the remaining few through this time, which has come to be known as the Great Awakening. He whispered things to them, told them how the Great Snake has spared their lives, so that they would fight for His mighty cause. And thus the Viper clan was born. They decided to make the Pit their Shrine, and to go out into the wastes and take what they needed from those blasphemers that did not follow the Winding Way of the Great Snake. When Faust (or the Great Snakekeeper, as he was called), grew too old to rule, his son, Asp, was given the sacred role of leader and High Priest. He has ruled ever since.


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Dress: Vipers typically dress in bone armor with a red sash, and their elite warriors are called the Crimson Tongue. Rituals: Once a month, the Vipers fall into a deep trance through a dangerous mixture of alcohol and snake venom (anyone who doesn't awake is considered to have been found unworthy by the Great Snake). When the Vipers reach manhood, they are given a special mixture of the Pit Viper venom. Those who die (or are in a coma for more than seven nights) are given as sacrifices to the Children. (The snakes in the Pit are officially called the Children of the Great Snake.) Those who survive the week-long delirium become Warriors of the Snake (also called Chosen Ones). There is also a monthly ritual, where the Venom is taken by the High Priests and Priestesses of the tribe in small quantities, which causes bizarre dreams. This is called the Time of the Summoning, because many claim to see the Great Snake come to them in their dreams. When it is time for a captured prisoner to be sacrificed, he is typically hurled into the Pit at midnight. Camp Breakdowns: The Pit: This is the large pit that lies in the center of the Viper's camp. It currently holds four giant Pit Vipers. Each one is old and very well fed, but they are still very deadly. The Pit itself branches off into many tunnels, where the player can find Faust's old staff, as well as many nests of rats. One of the tunnels opens up into a secret exit near the mountains, so a resourceful player could use it to escape after being hurled into the Pit. The Sanctuary: This is where Asp sleeps and attends to the governmental duties of his people. His mate, the High Priestess of the Great Snake, is always close by. They have no children. The meeting room itself is long and lined with torches. The throne Asp sits on was made from the skulls and bones of the two snakes that Faust killed during the Great Awakening. The Cages: Where the prisoners are kept. Located at the very edge of the Oasis (they cannot taint the snakes with the unbelievers), these pits are dug into the ground. Their entrances are made of iron grates set into the stone ground of the oasis. They are usually guarded by the Crimson Tongue, the special elite warriors. The reason they are used to guard this is because a lot of the time the Cages are used to hold the sacrifices to the Children. The Hall of Ascension: This is the ceremonial lodge used in the Time of Summoning. This is also used for all religious purposes, except the Snake Sacrifice, which is done on a platform set up over the Pit. So there you are - all I could dig up on the Vipers. Officially, they exist in the Fallout universe, but they'll differ from the description above in the following ways: •

The Vipers are from Vault 15.

•

Mutated snakes do exist in the Fallout universe. Watch where you step.

•

The Vipers' leader's name is unknown, but he was the first to discover the hallucinogenic effects of the mutated vipers. Anyone else injected with the undiluted venom either dies or goes into a coma.


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•

The Vipers have no stable location. They wander the wastes, the mass of snakes carried with them in a massive steel drum ed by slaves and brahmin.

•

The Vipers left Southern California after two incidents:

1.

Defeat at the Hub in 2125: Their failed attempt to raid the Hub during the Hub's formative years, stopped almost solely by Angus, the founder of the Hub. Angus' defense caused the Vipers to retreat north, and they roamed the wastes for many, many years, occasionally attacking caravans and small settlements. Around the early 2150s, however, the Vipers had grown to their former strength from captured slaves and caravan drivers and had begun to establish a power base in the badlands to the North of the Hub (and south of the Lost Hills Bunker). Driven by a religious frenzy (and the need to provide for their much larger numbers of soldiers and disciples), they began raiding more frequently than before, attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood sent out a few squads of scouts to track the raiders down - it was more of a training exercise conducted by John Maxson's father, as the Brotherhood was convinced that small detachment of troops in Power Armor would be sufficient to deal with a group of raiders, no matter how large.

2.

Near Extermination by the Brotherhood of Steel in 2155: One Brotherhood squad found the Vipers, and during the firefight, John Maxson's father (who was leading the squad) was killed with a poisoned arrow. The response from the Brotherhood was immediate. The Paladins, now led by Rhombus, began a full scale campaign against the Vipers, tracking them down and wiping out almost all of their within the span of a month. A handful of Vipers were able to flee north and east into the mountain range, but they were never heard from again.

3.

During the campaign, the Brotherhood sent a few scouts and emissaries to the Hub to track down Vipers , and from these beginnings, the Hub and the Brotherhood began full trade relations (caravans had delivered to the Brotherhood before, but not long after the destruction of the Vipers, caravan trains ran directly from the Hub to the Brotherhood on a regular basis). So some good did come out of the Vipers' presence in the wastes, for what it's worth.

Three questions from Ramon Dexter, transmitted via DJ Slamák (I'm checking on the other ones, Ramon): 1) Are the Fallout locations made according to real places, or did you make them up? I mean specifically the Hub, Junktown, Gecko a Modoc. Some are based on real places (Necropolis = Bakersfield, Klamath = Klamath Falls, Redding = Redding), but the Hub, Junktown, and Gecko were all made-up locations. Modoc most likely took its name from the Modoc National Forest located near the location. "Modoc" was originally the name of an Indian tribe in the region, I believe. Arroyo is a fictional locale, according to Tim Cain. 2) Does the Fallout 1 Military Base exist? According to Chris Taylor, Mariposa Military Base is based on Fort Ord, IIRC. That's an old military base that has been shut down near Monterey Bay. 3) What happened to inhabitants of Los Angeles when the bombs dropped? According to Fallout's very own Chris Taylor:


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This isn't canon, but I had always imagined that LA was pretty much decimated (which is 1 killed out of every 10, thanks Romans!). Most people in LA died after the bombs dropped, due to radiation poisoning, disease, famine and each other. Most of the people in the demonstration Vault left and of those that remained, most became the Master's servants and of the Children of the Cathedral. Those that left could be part of almost any organization in LA. The majority of people in LA would have to be people who came to the city after the destruction. Most to scavenge what they could, be it equipment, food or people. ...and based on what I could dig up from the old design documentation, this is pretty much what's written there for the Los Angeles area. One from Classic316 (via Kreegle): X. You said in the Fallout Bible, that Ghouls still live in Necropolis, but in the manual, it is written that the city was completely wiped out (The bad thing that happens if you don't take out the Military Base in time.) I find this odd since I assumed FO2 continued with the assumptions that the Vault Dweller more or less did everything the "Best" way possible in Fallout 1 (Such as taking out the base in time) Perhaps I'm misunderstanding something here, which is not too unlikely considering how long it's been since I've had time to play the game, so anything to help clear up this little question of mine is appreciated. I am wrong. Most ghouls were forced to leave Necropolis, leading to the Great Migration across the wastes. I will print retractions later. Some questions from Dane Zarbano: 1. What happened to Sgt. Granite and his crew after the destruction of the Enclave? He and the EC crew hopped aboard the tanker, and escaped to the mainland after watching the fireworks from the top of the tanker, whispering "gawd-damn" to themselves and throwing suggestive glances at the women from Vault 13 and Arroyo. After reaching the mainland, they headed north to Navarro (or the remains of Navarro, depending on how your PC left it) and were never heard from again, though their adventures could fill several eras worth of pulp comics, including a recent re-appearance in Keith Giffen's resurrection of Suicide Squad. 2. How was the Brotherhood of Steel involved with NCR after the destruction of the Enclave? Unknown. Presumably, they'd already established some level of co-existence with NCR even before the events of F1, judging by one of the states of NCR being dubbed "Maxson" (more on that in a future update except to say that the Lost Hills Bunker was NOT turned into a town in NCR) and considering their pre- existing ties to the Hub, which became a state by the time of F2. I've always imagined that NCR and BOS have maintained an uneasy truce, with barter and (some) technology sharing between the two groups. 3. What happened to the doctor guy who released the modified FEV virus into the EC's air ducts? Devastated in the wake of finding his moral center, he did not inoculate himself. When he released the toxin, it is believed he died with the rest of the EC, but his body was never found. 4. What happened to... a. Skynet Skynet's fate is undocumented. If I was to speculate, he left the player and began to travel west into the wasteland, looking for terminals and data to acquire more knowledge, collect more data, and perhaps "settle down" in a mainframe. The frame he was in, and the brain he had could only store so much information, and AIs need more data storage space to grow in order to evolve. It is possible he made his way to the Glow, but it's not known for sure. Any fan writers out there, feel free to round out what


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happened to him - considering his combat messages alone, the world's in for some shakin'. In the official universe, Skynet is not his real name. Like some other aspects in the Sierra Army Depot (i.e., the news reports), it needs to be revised into the timeline. Sue me. b. Marcus Marcus went east to try to find the remnants of the Master's Army:

MARCUS Inspired by the example set by the Chosen One, Marcus eventually traveled across the great mountains to the east, searching for other refugees from the Master’s army. You never heard from him again. c. Goris No one knows. He is the last of his kind, a tortured soul in a kingdom of ruins. Can you hear him howling in the darkness at the edge of the firelight? Of course you can. Shed not a tear for brave Goris – he has served the good people of the wastes, and now his time is done. See below for more information. d. K-9 (from Navarro) After getting his motivator repaired, K-9 was left in NCR by the Chosen One so that he could receive necessary repairs from Dorothy and, not long after his recovery, Dr. Henry (who had been placed in critical condition after being reportedly assaulted by the Chosen One some time earlier). Dr. Henry, afraid that too much information about the Enclave would be obtained from K-9, attempted to destroy the cyborg, but was stopped by cyberdog and Dorothy, who suspected what Dr. Henry was planning. The NCR government used the attack as an excuse to confiscate K-9 and cyberdog in order to learn more information about the Enclave as well as what makes the two of them "tick." At last report (and over Dorothy's objections), K-9 and cyberdog were disassembled and analyzed. Structural damage during the disassembling is reported tohave killed them both. e. Xarn the Intelligent Deathclaw from Navarro According to F2 designer John Deiley, Xarn was supposed to go back to Vault 13 and warn the Vault about Horrigan's attack, but he never made it (in the original design, he was supposed to be able to goback and save all the deathclaws and warn them about the Enclave, but this didn't make it in). He was last seen wandering east into the wastes toward Vault 13 - he never made it, however, so his final destination is unknown. 5. So if supermutants can now reproduce... They can't. Marcus was joking in New Reno. Super mutants are sterile. Blame me for another episode of bad humor, oh cruel reader. ...Goris and Xarn can perpetuate the intelligent deathclaw race, and new ghouls are being made from over-radiated people dying... Goris and Xarn did not perpetuate the race – they are the last of their kind. See below. ...that would mean Humans, Supermutants, Ghouls, and Intelligent Deathclaws would be major races in New California right? Not as of the end of Fallout 2, no. The predominant and most accepted race in NCR is human (and probably will be for generations). While super mutants and ghouls are tolerated (although some gain true acceptance, especially in the military and in the NCR Rangers), deathclaws of any intelligence would not be, assuming any significant number survived the Enclave's massacre at Vault 13, which they didn’t. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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One from Killian: Belief system. From the looks of FO/FO2 everything seems pretty non denom but there are still allusions to xianity. Any generally accepted idealogy in the wastes? I'm assuming it would be monotheistic? Any interesting tribal religions you'd care to elaborate more on? How about clearing up some of Hakunin's gibberish? (side question: Where's the name Hakunin from? Not any relation to Bakunin I hope though I guess Hakunin looks a bit like Bakunin post-scurvy) All the basic belief Pre-War systems are probably still out there, but they haven’t been addressed in any Fallout game out of fear of riling the masses - the Hubologists is probably the closest we ever got, and even they are an amazing coincidence to a contemporary religion. As a result, there's probably not much point on speculating on them except to say they probably survived in some fashion. Individual designers may end up resurrecting other religions if necessary to create controversy and screaming matches in the newspapers and message boards. In my opinion, the entire spectrum of Christianity still exists, and has scattered into even more splinter groups. Mormonism still exists, since it was hard to nuke all of Utah, and Mormons are pretty hardy folk. Father Tully in New Reno wasn't really a priest, obviously, and Jo in Modoc was a "minister" of sorts, but neither one was a representative of a real world religion. In the original documentation, Tully was supposed to be from the Abbey, but they drove him out after he accidentally set fire to one of their libraries. There are no tribal religions anywhere in the documentation except for the Vipers above, so anything I added would just be speculation. There are some out there – as much as Arroyo had a whole ancestorworship thing going on, there are probably radscorpion / sun / sand / volcano / storm / chem / spore plant/ radiation-worshippers out there. Hakunin's Gibberish: Don't know where his name comes from. If Hakunin was part of the original F2 design, Tim Cain might know. I’ll ask him at some point. His gibberish is probably due to a constant barrage of mind-altering chemicals he’s been taking in his role as shaman. He’s pretty whacked. Game logic reasons, however, dictate that because Hakunin’s text was written by Mark O’ Green, that he speaks the way he does because Mark has a talent and ion for inventing cool ways of speaking for NPCs (Set’s lingo, for example, Bonenose’s whole Jamaican dealio), and he does it because it’s fun. Let’s give it up for Mark O’ Green, people. Oh, and there are plenty of cults in the wasteland. Watch out for them, because usually they don’t like you and what you’re thinking. What's the family structure like in the Fallout universe? From most of the examples we've seen it looks like it sticks to the typical nuclear family or in more than usual cases, single parent homes (due to mortality rate in the wastes, I'd assume.) I imagine it varies according to region (there's no documentation for this), but it would mostly be nuclear families and possibly a commune here and there or some sort of group-rearing village. In situations where the genre wants to drive home the 1950s aesthetic, nuclear families are especially common. Racism. We've seen "city dweller" vs "spear chucker" discrimination in the Fallout world but is there any sort of racism? Aside from human vs mutant I mean :] I figure a catastrophic event like the great war would bring people together. There's no documentation on this, but aside from the obvious mutant-ghoul-human and cultural bigotry (tribals vs. townsfolk, Vault City vs. everyone else), racism and sexism (and this is just in my opinion) would be alive and well. A person's skin color, status, and career are always good excuses for fear and hate to build upon. I imagine communities like NCR and Modoc would have less of a problem with this. The Great War may have brought some communities together, but it also made isolated communities as well. Even in Fallout 1, Shady Sands hated the Hub, was suspicious of Junktown, and there was quite a few groups suspicious of the Brotherhood, etc, etc. There's lot of potential for sowing the seeds of hate in


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Fallout, so buckle up, everyone. It’s not one big happy family out there. Let the flames begin. As a final note, I always thought it was kind of cool that there was lots of female Enclave soldiers, and I liked that the initial design team made Lynette head of Vault City (and in a nice twist, had her in favor of slavery to give the player more to chew on). The culture of the world got shook up in interesting ways. Something Mr. Frosty wanted to know: I'd really like to know this. Why did they become tribals in such a short time? Religious reasons? Drugs? My problem with tribals is not their lack of technology -- which is vaguely plausible -- or their tribal structure -- which I don't object to at all. My problem is that the nature of their tribal cultural is ridiculous -- it makes no sense that post-Apocalyptic Americans would degenerate into pre-Columbian natives. If you're looking for plausibility in Fallout 1 and 2, you're bound to find holes, and there's not a concrete explanation for each one - and sometimes, you'll even find multiple explanations that contradict each other. The decision to make the Arroyo culture "tribals" was most likely a game logic/thematic one (as plot devices tend to be). There was a certain atmosphere that the F2 initial design team established with the tribal culture in Fallout 2, and I think they just wanted to play around with the fact that the player was from a primitive, non-technological, ancestor-worshipping culture. It was a way of bringing the history of the Vault Dweller from the past into the present, and provides a nice backdrop for the events in the game. Also, one issue (raised in Killian’s question above) is that many of the voice-acted dialogues were done by Mark O' Green, who likes to play with language and culture with the characters. Personally, I like what he did with Set, Sulik, the Elder, Hakunin, and the whole batch of them. Sure, they're bizarre, and they make you wonder about the culture of the world you're in, but I think that's a strength, not a drawback. Here's one from John/OTB. Something came up recently regarding one of the denizens of Vault City, namely Thomas Moore. The question is pretty simple: is he a reference to the author of Utopia? Leonard Boyarsky (the original F2 designer who made Moore) says it was most likely a reference to Chad Moore, one of the Interplay artists at the time. One from Alin Sfetcu / Sanctuary: 1. Why the doctor for Vault City (the one inside the vault) ask you to bring his a dose of Jet ? For his personal use or for research ? This is some sort of quest or i`ts a deadend ? Doctor Troy wants the Jet so he can create an antidote for it, though at first glance it appears like he's nursing a habit. It's a quest. Here's some from DoPr, Mat, and Cervantes (I tried to email this answer to you guys, but I got bounced, so you may be seeing this for the first time): First of all thanks for answering my question. Finally I know some more about Boyarsky's history. :-) Besides it was a nice news on my (and my friends) site. :-)) Any way, you encouraged me to mail some more questions: 1. The citizens of San Francisco often fight with knives called "Shiv". I tried to use them, but it was impossible. They're really shitty daggers - basically, their big claim to fame was supposed to be (1) they would never be detected as a weapon in hand if you approached someone (or entered a boxing match, or fought in the ring against LoPan), and (2) they were easy to conceal in case anyone searched you. There wasn't a way to pull off the "see no evil" power, so we didn't implement it. As for being "searched," you don't get searched anywhere in the game (except at the Vault City), so the shivs just ended up being really crappy


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knives - still, there was plenty of places where shivs were thematically appropriate (New Reno), so they're lying around in people's inventory. 2. Is it true, that Holly Hand Grenade can be found in a regular encounter with a cave full of enemies? I checked with Jason Suinn, the random encounter designer from F2 (he also designed the encounter with King Arthur). He says he doesn't think so - it's only available after the King Arthur encounter, in a cave with an extremely dangerous rat. We could be wrong and one may be accidentally placed somewhere (we're still finding the solar scorcher in strange places). If you guys have a savegame where this happens, let us know. 3. Why Miria (and I guess Davin too) don't promote to higher levels? Because they're terrible NPCs. Basically, they were intended as a burden rather than a force to be reckoned with. 4. In NCR there is a doctor (I don't his name) that works on an antidote for mutants. Unfortunately the antidote is lethal. I'm curious who is that guy because, according to the dialog, he seems to come from Enclave... or maybe he was just working there? Dr. Henry used to work with the Enclave cyber-genetic research program at the Poseidon oil rig and at various other Enclave installations. In NCR, Dr. Henry claims he left because he felt his "work wasn't being appreciated," which is true: his theories on correcting the mutation in the Wasteland population were not popular with the rest of the Enclave scientists, most notably one of his colleagues, Dr. Schreber, who he worked with tly on many genetic research projects in the past. Dr. Henry was arguing with Schreber at the Navarro base about the mutation problem for the five billionth time when Schreber, in a fit of anger, told Henry he was going to recommend that Henry be transferred to another Enclave facility where he would be put to work on cybernetic maintenance (the equivalent of cybernetic janitorial duty). Henry took the threat very seriously, and within hours, Dr. Henry stole a cybernetic dog (cyberdog) and slipped away from the Navarro facility, heading east and eventually making his way to NCR. The Enclave, while not pleased with his attitude and the directions of his research, were not happy with his escape (they need all the scientists they can get), and several soldiers were punished for negligence. Schreber never confessed to his role in Henry's disappearance, and simply claimed that Dr. Henry had been acting suspicious for some time, and was displaying “sympathies for the mainland mutants.” 5. Why such a large city like San Francisco is not so well known as Vault City? The people there didn't seem to isolate like VC citizens. I also don't understand why San Fran was avoided by caravans though there was a lot of good stuff to buy. It is actually well known (at least in the South), you just don't see the caravans from San Francisco. San Francisco trades fish to other cities in the wasteland. Mmmm, fish. 6. Now a question about Brotherhood of Steel. How did they know my hero's name??? :-) They're psychic, can read minds, consume human beings and absorb their thoughts, and neurolink to computers like the Master. No secret is safe from them. I also have two more questions, but they are not exactly from me. Some people sent such questions to my site and now I have opportunity to finally find the answer. The first question seems to be a "walk through question" but I'll ask it anyway. :-) So... A guy named "Mat" asked about the second excavator chip in Redding. Is there any way to sell both chips? There should only be one chip. If there are two, then that's a bug. Let me know where you find the second one. The second question is a real mystery for me, because I only managed to that part of it. Someone called "Cervantes" asked about the sixth toe gained in Toxic Caves, which can be


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removed in Vault City. That part is clear but now is something interesting... Cervantes says, that after he finished the game whores in New Reno kept saying: "You really should use the mutated toe on Horrigan" (to get full amount of points). Is it true or is Cervantes just pulling my leg? :-] It's just a joke; don't do it. It doesn't do anything. Don't eat the toe, either, since I believe it poisons you. A couple from Tom: 1. Whatever happened to the inhabitants of The Sierra Army depot? General Clifton and his troops evacuated the base (sometime between July 10, 2077 and late October, 2077) and went to the remaining troops in neighboring installations or sent to the front lines in China or Anchorage on a plane or ship before their lives were reduced to ash by a rain of nuclear fire. 2. Who were the Sierra Army Depot soldiers attacked by? Since when u get the robot to take out his body from a tube he says "I got to get back to my squad!" Sadly he dies. They were attacked either by hungry or striking rioters in the United States (unlikely from Dobbs' description, however), or they were deployed to China or Alaska, where they fought the Chinese. Dobbs' unit was in Alaska when he was wounded and dumped in the meat wagon. 3. Why does he have a Red Ryder LE? I never used the beebee guns because I thought they were weak. Were the enemies weak or something? The fact he is carrying the BB gun is a joke (as well as the fact that he dies from post-cryogenic syndrome a few seconds after popping out of the tank), but the gun itself isn't very funny to anyone you shoot in the eye with it. It has a high chance of doing some blood-curdling criticals and consistently does 25 points of damage with every hit, I believe. Two from Sergeant Josh Grant, whose current tour of duty is Lead Tester on Icewind Dale 2, and has had nothing but pleasing things to say about my design ability and comparing it to the grace and style of a drunken monkey on a typewriter with several keys missing: 1) The Fo1 manual has an ad in the back for a GECK. When this ad was placed in the manual, was it already known that this would be the key item in Fo2, or was it just coincidental? No - from what Chris Taylor tells me, the GECK was created by Jason Anderson and Leonard Boyarsky for the F1 manual - it wasn't intended to be used in Fallout 2. But as far as a McGuffin goes, it was there when it was needed. Hello, game logic. 2) Can the Fo1 vault dweller ever beat ZAX at chess? From Jess Heinig, one of the Fallout 1 programmers, designers, and the one responsible for writing the loveable machine intelligence: To beat ZAX in chess, you must score a critical success on an Intelligence check, and ZAX must fail its check. Very, very rare circumstance. As I recall it might be scripted so that it's also only possible if a character has a 10 INT, but I may be mistaken -- it's been a while. None of the skills, except perhaps Gambling, seemed really appropriate, so I decided to go with straight stat check. Some from Michael Jeppesen: 1. Once I ask Butch from the Far Go Traders in the Hub about the Maltese Falcon, and he mentioned a girl named Hope, a singer at the Maltese Falcon. When I looked at your newly released concept art at Vault13.net, I noticed a character named Hope. I've never been able to find this girl in the game. Why not? What role should this character have played? According to Scott Campbell, one of the original designers for Fallout 1, Hope was supposed to be a singer at the Maltese Falcon who was supposed to have some adventure seeds with the Hub underworld.


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It didn't make it into the game, and there's no more information on her, unfortunately. 2. What do you need to do to save the Hub from being slaugtered by the fleeing mutants in the end scene? I've finished Fallout 1 once where the Hub survived the attack, and twice where it was slaugtered; but to the best of my knowledge I did nothing different when playing the game the second and the third time! Beats me; I’ve forgotten. I think it’s a time issue. If anyone out there reading this re, let me know. It could be a bug. One from Dmitri Polioutinne (not from his mother, Nina Pastoukhova): X. 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? First of all, the Sierra Army Depot was intended to be a bonus location for the game, just a place to adventure that wasn't tied to the main plot (kind of like the EPA, Abbey, and the Primitive Village were supposed to be), except it made it in (as did Modoc, New Reno, and to an extent, the Military Base, which, while it helps the plot, isn't critical path). The Sierra Army Depot was used for the following (primarily taken from Sierra Mission Statement Holodisk): 1. From 1942 - 1991, it was responsible for storing various military munitions. This is true. 2. From 1992 - 2050, it was responsible for disposing much of the obsolete munitions in storage. This is true. 3. From 2050 - 2076 is when the place started getting creepy. It became a classified facility for robotic research and development, and biological and conventional weapon testing. Skynet (constructed primarily for research purposes) went on line in 2050, and it is possible that the intelligence arranged all of this, but unlikely. Again, Skynet is not its real name. Robotic Research: Skynet is the first machine intelligence to be developed in the Depot, and it was conceived in 2050 (it didn't actually become aware until 2075, and it really started cranking on developing a cybernetic brain to help it gain mobility). In July of 2077, Skynet was "copied," creating two versions, one to run the defenses and the other one to sit in the lab and wait for the researchers to come back and help it finish the fucking cybernetic brain it had spent so long developing. BTW, the dates that Skynet lists for its awareness and "final instructions" in Fallout 2 are incorrect. It became self-aware in 2075, and it was abandoned sometime in late July to early October in 2077. It is believed that the dates and other numerical data within the facility may be suffering from some damage or numeric decay in the base's internal clock. Biological Research: In addition to biological weapons and drug testing, the Sierra Army Depot performed many illegal experimentations on prisoners of war and military prisoners (especially U.S. military prisoners and deserters – the ones that weren't used to "stock" robobrains, however), attempting to enhance their intelligence and fighting skills, but the chemical cocktails that the Sierra Depot crew were feeding their subjects had nothing to do with the FEV research taking place in West Tek and the Mariposa facility. Many of the brains extracted in the Sierra Army Depot found their way into


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Robobrains throughout the U.S. military. Furthermore, the Sierra Army Depot kept many prisoners and soldiers in stasis, most likely for medical or testing purposes (such as Private Dobbs). 4. 2077 is when Skynet was made into a "multiple personality" in order to oversee defense of the Sierra Depot as General Clifton and his command pulled out of the base. It has been sitting there in the darkness ever since, illuminated by tiny blinking red diodes and the whirring of magnetic tape reels. And because as mentioned before, no good question can ever truly have an answer, here's another follow up from Dmitri Polioutinne: X. Besides I want to 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 possibility of these additional locations ever being released or a crack to unpack them? The data of this locations is included into the Master.dat, if I'm not mistaken. So there must be a way to reveal them and make them playable, right? I guess you know how it is valuable for the fans. There wasn't ever anything designed for these locations except for the 5-6 pages of the EPA summary which I've included below - the locations don't actually exist in a data file anywhere in a playable state or even a "50% finished" state. It's doubtful we'll ever make them or release them to the public. Here's a common question I get; it's from Evan Lally.

THE SHORT ANSWER ON HOW TO BE A GAME DESIGNER

This last question isn't going to be in the final version of the Bible, BTW, I'm just posting it here since I get this question a lot. I am an avid gamer and fan of roleplaying games that wishes to enter the industry, but have limited appreciation of graphic design and programming. My primary interest, instead, rests along the lines of story-line and world creation, in classic roleplaying fashion. Now, this would seem to make entering the gaming industry difficult: few games really seem to have a great focus on excellent and well-executed storytelling, which would seem to note a limited demand. Further, how would I make with companies to establish myself? Fan fiction is a lovely thing, but I've never heard of a fan fiction writer being drafted, more or less, to work in a gaming company. You can see my problem. My questions are as such: what degrees or experience would be preferred if I am going to attempt entry as a story-line writer or level designer, as a story-line writer would likely also become? Additionally, how would I establish s within the industry or companies that would have need for interested and able writers? Well, first off, if you're interested in story and world creation, I would recommend trying to get established in the pen and paper game industry or in books or novels - game design requires a love of game mechanics, lists, and tons upon tons of rule sets. If you're interested in computer game deg, then here's what we look for/what you should focus on: 1. A love of RPGs. 2. A critical eye for RPGs (and preferably, other games as well), including feel, interface, pacing, weapon balance, level design, and so on. Play a lot of them and be able to tell what you like and don't about each game. The more specific, the better. 3. Good design skills - not only do you notice the elements mentioned above, but you can also implement them well. Know and recognize game clichés. 4. Good writing skills - when not actually arguing and throwing feces at each other through our cage


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bars, a large portion of a game designer's job is design documentation or writing 5000 emails. That means you need good technical writing skills and an ability to organize your thoughts. You need to be able to a document off to audio, QA, marketing, the programming staff, and an artist, and they should be able to find out whatever information they need just by looking at the document. If you want to prep for a job in the game design field, I'd suggest the following: 1. Play a lot of games and analyze what you like and don't like about them. If you interview for a game company, that'll always be part of the interview questions, and having smart answers ready beforehand helps them determine if you'll be a good developer or not. 2. You should play a lot of games, but just as importantly, watch a lot of other people play games. Pay attention to how the game is played, especially the interface and menus and the means by which the player interacts with the game. When you do, you’ll quickly start seeing what irritates players and what they enjoy - keep a running your head of successful ideas used in games and what made them work. 3. If a game comes with level or map editors, play around with them, try out levels or scenarios with your friends and use that as an acid test for your work. There are tons of editors out there, like the level editors for Quake, Starcraft, Warcraft, Arcanum, Neverwinter Nights, or any others you can get your hands on. Put your levels or mods up on the net, get critiques, and try to make a name for yourself as a good level or map designer before you even go to a game company - it helps when the interviewer's already seen your work on the internet and perhaps even played one of your levels. 4. Persistence and enthusiasm mean a lot in the game industry, so if you get knocked down once, just get back up and try again. You’ll get noticed. 5. If you're looking for college classes to take, I'd suggest some creative writing courses, maybe a little bit of programming and art, and any classes that deal with interface design or layout for computer programs. Learn how to write critically and technically, and become familiar with Microsoft Word. 6. A lot of designers did not start out as designers. If you want a door into the game industry, try manual writing, web design, quality assurance, or any of a bunch of other jobs in the game industry. Make your interest in becoming a designer known, and if you have the skills, somebody should give you a chance. P.S. I've a question for the Fallout Bible, by the way: 1) Most classic theories on nuclear war include a nuclear winter after the attack, where particulates in the atmosphere cause a substantial drop in temperature,along with snowing, freezing and the like. There is a 'Great Winter' listed in the Fallout timeline, but it doesn't immediately follow the nuclear exchange. Was or wasn't there a nuclear winter? If not, why not? If so, why wasn't it mentioned before? Mind, it is quite possible I missed mention of it. Presumably, though, it would have had some sustained impact on the world. Nope, I just assumed there was a nuclear winter and that was a bad assumption - I just assumed with hundreds of bombs flying around a nuclear winter was pretty inevitable, but I don't think one ever occurred in the Fallout universe. As for why not, I don't know enough about nuclear warfare at the moment to say why not - I'll make the assumption that the nuclear warheads used in the Fallout universe were of comparable tonnage to the nukes in the real world (early) 1950s era, in which case, many of them could have been used without causing a massive blackout. If someone out there with real nuclear warfare knowledge, however, can illuminate Evan and I, I'd appreciate it, and I'll make you the BIG WINNER for next time. Some questions from Per Jorner: About the Elder aftermath text: first it says she lived on "for many years", then that she "ed away a few months later". Is that an inconsistency, or did she live many years and then a few months and then she died? :)


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She dies a few months after Arroyo is established, which takes many years, once they figure out how to make their GECK work. 2 questions (not the ones I'd most like the answers to, but just off the top of my head): 1. Could you dig up the floating dialogue that Melchior Sr. blurts in the Military Base? Here you go; I only include it here, because when I run Fallout 2 in Windows NT, it flashes by too fast for me to read, so if anybody else out there is having the same problem, here you go: Stop! Approach no further! Melchior the Magnificent commands you. Behold, I am the greatest magician in the world. Tremble before the might of Melchior the Magnificent! My pets will feast on your bones! 2. Is the Professor in Broken Hills the same as the missing Shi researcher mentioned in the biology database? No. Professor Sheng is uned for. Poor Professor Sheng. 3. In John Deiley's answer to a Goris question, the statement that "the intelligence gene was made male specific and dominant" doesn't make a lot of sense from a genetic standpoint, but I suppose that's science fiction. Hey, I'm still trying to figure out how to explain the physics of the Hydroelectric Magnetosphere Regulator. Oh, if you go through Vault City with an Intelligence of 4, you'll notice that your character won't always understand some of the bigger words the Vault Citizens are spitting out. On the topic of real-world names in Fallout, I think they're neat. I like to open an atlas and look for places in Wasteland and Fallout 2, and it must be absolutely mind-boggling to be a Fallout 2 player and actually live in Klamath Falls or something. I guess Tim & crew thought so, too, or they just felt like doing it for some other reason. I don't really know what the decision was behind it. A thesis and a big "hey!" from Krzysztof Lis: Hey!! I just ed and read the two Bibles - part 0 and part 5, and I have some questions about Fallout... Just wait 'til you read this update. 1) Why the cows in Fallout 2 when touched (to move them) are dropping down on the ground? Why does it happen after some 'shaking' which looks like taking damage from gunshot? Why is it not possible to move them all? It's supposed to simulate the great sport of "cow-tipping." 2) Do perks like Sexpert or Kamasutra Master make any difference? There is not so many possibilities to have sex in Fallout 2. :-(


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I think it allows you to automatically get the best response from Mrs. Bishop as well as allow you to become a Porn Star without a problem - Tom French (one of our programmers) set it up, so I'm not absolutely sure. It is of limited usefulness, and I wouldn't recommend taking it in a serious life-and-death game - or if you are a gaming munchkin. 3) What the hell happened to Vault 15??? [Two maps were included, showing the two versions of V15 side by side] The question is long and complex, so I added two images to the email to make it a bit more understandable... (Since I’m not including the images, the images show Vault 15 from F1 and Vault 15 from F2 – obviously, there are some big structural differences.) Beats me. I’ll ask the designer. It was probably changed because of designer caveat/privilege/whatever; there’s no documentation on it. However, if I recall correctly, Tandi does say that Vault 15 was occupied by NCR "a couple of years" before the Squatters drove out the guards. It's possible they did some excavation and maintenance over the past eighty years - especially while building NCR, but that WOULD BE GUESSING. a) Do the 'original' people from community of Shady Sands come from Vault 15? President Tandi says something like: "We need some parts from our old Vault". Is she lying, or the Aradesh didn't want to tell the original Vault Dweller anything 'bout it. As far as I after telling him, that the character is from one Vault he says something like: "Wanderer, I shall believe you, for now" - the 'standard' answer. Yes, most of them. There are exceptions, like Ian. I don't know why Aradesh didn't mention Vault 15; I suspect he tends to be pretty reserved and suspicious of strangers. As for "Wanderer, I shall believe you, for now," Aradesh is just commenting on that he's not sure whether he believes the player is from a Vault. It doesn't jive, I know, especially after you help his daughter, but there you are. Just as a detour/side note into game logic so you can see it from a development perspective, voice acting is a double-edged sword. It's cool to hear the characters speaking, but it can cause problems, not just because of expense, but because (1) what you record is what you get, (2) it has to be done several months before the game ships so that audio can clean it and you can lip sync it to the characters, and (3) Ron Perlman is very scary in person. The problem occurs is that you can't always anticipate every spoken line of dialogue you may need for the game - that's why occasionally you'll get some "Tell Me About" responses for some of the spoken characters that do not have any voice attached to them. Also, if you've ever wondered why certain voice acted characters in the Fallout game tell you to go to their assistants to receive rewards, that's why - it's easier to modify their non-voice-acted assistants than them. i) If we're talking bout Aradesh, why does he look like General Maxson? Are they family or what?? I think they were both done by Scott Rodenheizer, and he has a certain style in how he sculpts heads they may have even been the same head. I don't know. b) Why the Vault 15 from F2 is not the Vault we from F1? I mean the following: i) The cave entries look completely different. Chech one of the images - the blue color (on both) shows the walls in F1, the green - in F2. In F2 you can go into the cave from one of the houses in The Squat, or through the elevator in the mountain. In F1 there is only one way in - from old shack, through a manhole in the floor. There is also no mention about any mountain nor hill. So - what happened there??? You probably also noticed the differencies in the caves' looks and 'construction' - some new halls and rooms were added. To recap from above or below (images not replicated), I can't :


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(Since I’m not including the images, the images show Vault 15 from F1 and Vault 15 from F2 – obviously, there are some big structural differences.) Beats me. I’ll ask the designer. It was probably changed because of designer privilege; there’s no documentation on it. However, if I recall correctly, Tandi does say that Vault 15 was occupied by NCR "a couple of years" before the Squatters drove out the guards. It's possible they did some excavation and maintenance over the past eighty years - especially while building NCR, but that WOULD BE GUESSING. ii) The third level is also different. All the rocks were dug out - but how? In F1 you see slt: 'it is impossible to move the rocks, even with best explosives'. Does it mean: 'one person is unable to do that work, but many hands for many days may be able to do it'?? It's most likely a case of designer privilege/caveat/whatever. It's possible a mining and excavation team with drilling and excavation tools backed by the Republic working over several months can do it (since they were there for many decades before the squatters showed up) - but I don't know for sure; that's just a guess - or a "retro-explanation for something that defies explanation." iii) In F1 there were two elevators. One on lvls 1-2, second - - from 2-3. It is NOT possible to rebuild the elevator shafts, or am I just mistaken?? ;-] Again, a case of designer privilege/caveat/game logic; the designer most likely just needed them rebuilt, but it could have been done with ropes down the shafts. I imagine (and WARNING: this is speculation only) that if there had been an NCR excavation team, they may have gotten the shafts operational again somehow (especially to haul out heavy computer equipment, or to get heavy drilling equipment downstairs). But that would be reaching - I can't find any reason for the change, and there may not have been one except for the purposes of designer privilege/caveat/whatever. 4) Has Cassidy ever had a wife or girlfriend?? Tons. And sometimes both at the same time. It's why he has a bad heart. 5) What kind of tree is growing out of Harold's head? An oak, "the larch", or something else?? It's a completely new species of tree, no Pre-War equivalents, and it's never been classified. It's unique and special, just like Harold. 6) How about water creatures? Are there whales in Fallout universe? The crashed one surely existed. ;-] How about sharks, other fish species, lobsters (I think they should mutate similarly to RadScorpions)? There's fish, seaweed, and algae, but no known sightings of other fishy creatures, including sharks and lobsters. If for fan fiction purposes you wanted to include lobstrosities like in The Drawing of the Three, knock yourself out. Presumably, aquatic life probably fared better than most of the land-based species, but no one has done research on how FEV or radiation may have affected them, if at all. Oh, the whale in F2 doesn't count, since it fell from orbit. Some from Michael Roellinghoff (if I got your name wrong, I apologize). I've been playing through FO2 again, and I noticed in the NCR Holodisk that there is reference to a number of cities, most of them are recognizable, except for "Maxson". I take it this city is named after the various Brotherhood Maxsons - so what's the story? Did they settle down and make a larger town? I can hardly imagine the Brotherhood of Steel doing this, let alone for some city like the NCR.


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Secondly, in FO1 Tandi is of East Indian decent but in Fallout 2 she is clearly white. And has a Texan accent. Also, what happened religiously in NCR? I know it was supposed to be a intentionally mixed Vault ethnically, but they seem to be Hubologists (and there are a lot of crosses around in general). Well, Aradesh has East Indian influences about him, but I don't know about Tandi's mother, since she kicked the bucket before the game starts. She has darker skin in F1 than F2 most likely because when 2 rolls around, she's ancient and she spends a LOT more time indoors. As for shedding Dharma's teaching, Tandi loved her father, but didn't always agree with him, and I imagine religion was no exception. The designers for NCR, Zeb Cook and John Deiley, felt that with the huge brahmin trade, NCR would gain some Texan color and slang (I think Zeb just lived in Texas too long that the region was burned into his skull), so Tandi's speech is roughened up as a result of 80+ years of brahmin-driving influences. There you go. Religiously - while Aradesh believe in the teachings of Dharma, Tandi always believed in the separation of church and state - and resisted any attempts to canonize the Vault Dweller within the city limits (the statue's fine, but that's it). Both Aradesh and Tandi found politics and religion don't mix, especially when they got more exposure to the people of the Hub and visits from a few well-spoken of the Followers of the Apocalypse. In any event, the NCR allows any non-psychotic religions within their capitol (they are all for freedom of religion, as long as it doesn't involve human sacrifice or dipping people in Vats) and the crosses were just holdovers from Fallout 1 scenery. It is quite likely that the of Shady Sands were Catholic, but as a general rule, you have to be careful about bringing real world religions into games from a development standpoint - it's worse than profanity in the "Top Ten List of Things People Will Get Up in Arms About." That said, the Hubologists have no relation to Scientology. Any coincidences between the two groups are just that, coincidences. One last thing, from a development/game logic standpoint, the Hubologist was mostly in NCR to allow you to access the Hubologists in San Francisco later on, much like Jain in the Hub in Fallout 1. Thirdly, is there going to be any reference to what happened elsewhere? Like Canada or China or Europe perhaps? There were a number of dots on the world map in the Enclave war room? Are these other US bases? Nothing on any other countries that hasn't already been mentioned in the Bible, at least, not for some time. The dots on the map wall were either Enclave bases, "sites of interest" for the Enclave, special monitoring stations, or just flashing red dots placed there for ambiance. I'm betting on the latter. Finally, I was doing some research into nuclear winters. South America as a whole doesn't have many natural resources, so would likely not be involved with the Great War (never has been a major player, never will be), and because of it's far-south location, it will be spared from a lot of the nuclear fallout and pretty much all of the effects of the nuclear winter. What is South America's status in the Fallout world? Well, the author of The Last Ship agrees with you; South America probably didn't get involved or hit as bad, but I won't be covering any specifics in the Bible, at least not anytime soon. Whoever asked about penguins in the last update should probably check out The Last Ship, too, since the author dwells on the topic of penguin's survival quite a bit. Somebody I forgot the name of asked this: What does the yellow reactor key card do?


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Last I heard, it was supposed to either (1) do something to the nuclear bomb in the Enclave, or (2) do something to the reactor in Gecko. Whatever it was, I don’t think it made it in – but I need to shanghai a programmer to make sure. They all stopped talking to me since I turned into a raving lunatic during Icewind Dale 2, so it may take a while for me to hunt them down and place them in interrogation cages.

TALKING DEATHCLAWS

BTW, the talking deathclaws were destroyed at the end of Fallout 2. Xarn and Goris did not go on to create a new species. They are gone. Kaput. Goodbye. In fact, any mutant animal that talks can safely be assumed to have died at the end at the exact minute that Fallout 2 was over. Any last words, talking animals? I thought not.

A HISTORY OF DEATHCLAWS

And for you Deathclaw-lovers and all of those who love Fallout: Tactics… Did you know Deathclaws originally had hair? Do you know what Deathclaws were originally modeled after? And no, I don’t mean the “Shadowclaws” in Wasteland. Wait for the next update for the exciting answers and concept art! You’ll get to see the dark underbelly of development at its finest!

MORE ON HORRIGAN

Oh, I checked with the designer for Horrigan (Matt Norton, one of the lead designers for F2), and the deal is: 1. He's a new model of super mutant, even bigger, stronger, and faster than other super mutants. He's like New, Improved Kleenex. 2. Not only was he exposed to FEV, but he was also given controlled injections of a modified version of FEV to make him a complete muscle-bound jerkoff. 3. He can't survive outside his armor. The armor continually injects him with drugs and other stabilizing agents. Ha ha ha, Frank. 4. Frank Horrigan is also a reference to Clint Eastwood's character in "In the Line of Fire." Let the pop culture flaming begin. 5. He is the secret service agent that the Chemical Corps officer in the Enclave mentions as having being experimented on. Here’s a summary of NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel for anyone who cares or who doesn’t know what the hell “NCR” and “BOS” mean and why they’re there; WARNING: This is just a summary for the moment, not the end-all, be-all of the New California Republic. Flag design courtesy of Matt Norton, from Fallout 2.


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NEW CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC

NCR Summary: The New California Republic (NCR) is a government on the rise from its modest beginnings in the village of Shady Sands in Fallout 1, almost eighty years ago. The NCR capitol (Pop: 3000+) is west of the Rockies, in the middle-eastern portion of California (almost straight east inland from San Francisco). The NCR is arguably the largest power group in the world of Fallout, and maintains the largest standing army. Government: The government of NCR is much like the Pre-War United States, with a House of Congress staffed by elected representatives (Congressmen elected by their states). These representatives decide upon the President and Vice-President to head the council and govern the republic - under advice from the representatives, of course (NCR, at the time, has no existing term limits - Tandi was currently serving her tenth year at the beginning of Fallout 2). The titles for these representatives have ranged from "Councilor," "Counselor," "Councilman," "Representative," "Senator," and in particular, the Hub (in its own obstinate way) prefers to call their representatives "Governors." (There is a lot of friction between the Hub and Shady for a variety of reasons, usually related to trade rights and caravan routes.) In any event, all titles are recognized and accepted outside of the council chambers, but within the chambers, the titles are occasionally used as insults and spark furious debates - nothing more than petty displays of each state trying to exert its independence. NCR has outlawed slavery in their territories, have one of the best and largest standing armies in the wastes, and have benefited under their current President, Tandi, who has been with the Republic since she was a young girl in Shady Sands (see History, below). On the plus side, the NCR has outlawed slavery in their territories, has attempted to bring civilization and law back to the wasteland, and they don't (openly) discriminate against ghouls and mutants. There is little to no sexism in NCR (unlike most other territories in the wastes), most likely due to the community's origins in Vault 15 and because of Tandi's extended presidency. The republic also has shown little discrimination against ghouls and mutants, though many political analysts argue that this is because NCR has had limited with them (NCR had little with Necropolis or the Master's Army). 1

The NCR military is composed of several Divisions, including special cavalry and mechanized units. One of their "Special Forces" units consists of the Rangers, a select group that is pledged to protect the people of the Wastes much like the Texas Rangers of old. The Rangers are said to have numerous safehouses throughout the wastes, and they use these to strike at slavers outside of NCR territory (usually in the North). As expected, the two groups hate each other with a ion. NCR was also in the habit of establishing marshals in the major population centers in their territories, responsible for enforcing the laws of NCR throughout the Republic. Ghouls, super mutants, and humans were all known to serve in the NCR armed forces, even in the rangers. Although nearly hitting a hundred years of age, Tandi has done more to unite the people of the wastes than any other leader born from the ashes of the Great War, and she is revered as a saint and even a "Great Mother" by some of the tribals outside of the Republic territories. Tandi’s State of the Republic 2 messages were famous for inspiring countless people to the “service” and rebuild civilization. Under her rule, the republic has grown, and she has focused efforts on rebuilding the pre-war infrastructure to the growing population, finding new forms of transportation and manufacturing, clearing roadways and raillines, building forts, fostering caravans and trade in the republic (and with other territories), and dealing with threats swiftly and efficiently. In all her years, she has never forgotten her roots in the small village of Fallout 1, and she has always strived to put the welfare of the common man above the wheels of progress. When people talk about "good people," Tandi's good people. 1

These “divisions” are notably smaller than modern-day Divisions by several factors. While NCR can field a large number of troops compared to most other communities in the wasteland, they would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket to Pre-War Divisions. 2

“Nothing will ever break up our home,” Tandi proclaimed in her second State of the Republic address. “We will create a new future - without the mistakes of the past.” Political jargon blah blah blah - but with heart!


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Common NCR Laws include: •

No weapons may be carried openly within the city limits.

•

Public drunkenness and drug use is grounds for arrest.

•

Slavery, gambling, and prostitution are not permitted within the city limits.

These laws were more relaxed in the outlying settlements, but became more rigidly enforced the closer one came to a major NCR population center. History: The New California Republic was born out of the remnants of the survivors of Vault 15, a sister vault to Vault 13 that opened earlier and released its occupants out onto the wasteland. Abandoning their vault (after scavenging most of what they could from the surviving technology and collapsed lower levels), the former residents of Vault 15 founded the small walled community of Shady Sands, a town midway between Vault 13 and 15. In the period of Fallout 1, this community was led by Aradesh, and his daughter, Tandi, eventually rose to become president of the sprawling New California Republic in Fallout 2. (Without the efforts of the Vault Dweller in F1, however, the raiders in the region - the Khans would have claimed Shady Sands and stamped out the republic before it even got started). At the time of Fallout 2, NCR's main resource is its great brahmin herds, which provides most of the wasteland with as much meat and leather as they require. The brahmin barons and ranchers in NCR (along with the Stockmen's Association) hold a great deal of sway with the caravans and the government. The NCR's relationship with their old Vault has undergone some violent upheavals over the years. From nests of monsters, raiders, Vault 15 worshippers, ghoul scavengers, to more innocent (and not-soinnocent) Squatters and Salvage Teams and the Republic arguing over excavation rights, it seems to be difficult for the government or any other inhabitant of the wasteland to leave the area alone... because, well, it's a Vault. The brahmin herders hatred of radscorpions is famous, and it dates all the way back to the founding of Shady Sands. Rumors of herds being attacked by talking deathclaws are unfounded. The Hard Sell: NCR has a decent marketing and public relations department, and they are constantly sending couriers out into the wastes to nail up NCR posters or disseminate NCR propaganda. Here’s a transcript of the NCR sell sheet in Fallout 2:

NEW CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC We’re Here! Why not us? There’s a wonderful future ahead – and it could be yours with the New California Republic! But what is it, you want to know? HOW BIG IS NCR? Founded eighty years ago, the NCR is now comprised of the states of Shady, Los Angeles, Maxson, Hub, and Dayglow. Approximately 700,000 citizens are pleased to 3 call NCR home.

3

These population figures are exaggerated, though the population of NCR and all its states is pretty impressive. It has been known to vary according to plot purposes.


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WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? NCR may be a bit different from what you’re used to. There are no chieftains, town bosses, kings, or dictators here. Our leaders are elected by the people! That’s right every state has the right to send representatives to the Hall of Congress. These representatives select the President and Vice-President to head the council and it is their advice which guides the President’s decisions. For ten now, President Tandi has been the unanimous choice of the council, who respect her wisdom and foresight. SOUNDS GREAT! HOW DO I THE NCR? All law-abiding and peaceful people, human or mutant, are eligible to become citizens of NCR. To become a citizen all you have to do is move to NCR and present your claim for immigration. After citizenship training and processing your application, you will be notified of your new status as a PC (Provisional Citizen). From there, it’s only a short step to full citizenship! Of course, NCR is not for everybody – slavers, unreformed mutants, known raiders, and other undesirables need not apply! BUT I WHAT IF MY ENTIRE TOWN WANTS TO ? Depending on where your town is located, NCR does accept petitions by villages, towns, bases, city-states, even minor kingdoms for annexation by NCR.Once the petition is accepted, NCR will grant your town territorial status. Once the needed police and army presence is established and any banditry or other lawlessness has been dealt with, your village can apply for full statehood in the NCR. It’s that simple! So – WE’RE HERE. WHY NOT US? Prepared by the New California Relations Advisory NCRAP Pub. #A7-7893b NCR Regulations: Oh, and to recap, here's a listing of NCR laws from Fallout 2: Welcome to the New California Republic! Before entering our fair city please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the following rules and regulations. No weapons may be openly carried inside the city limits. Persons found under the influence of alcohol or drugs will be arrested. Slavery, gambling, and prostitution are not permitted within city limits. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. A dumbass will get his/her butt kicked just as fast as a smartass. If you can’t live by these laws – then get the hell out cause we don’t want you here! More on NCR to come – the above is just an introduction. Just like the following is for the Brotherhood of Steel (and again, this is not the end-all, be-all, it's just laying a foundation):


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THE BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL

The Brotherhood of Steel: The Brotherhood of Steel (BOS) is a techno-religious organization, with roots in the US military and government-sponsored scientific community from before the war. The BOS is mostly composed of the descendents of those military officers, soldiers, and scientists, but aside from some outlanders among their ranks, the BOS is as close to pure strain humanity (prime normals) as you're going to find outside of a Vault. The ranks of the BOS is generally recognized as being composed of the best and the brightest... which means the BOS is a really small organization, at least compared to NCR. They make up for this with their frightening arsenal of pre-war and post-war technology: They have laser weapons, power armor, surgical enhancements, combat implants, and a squad of Brotherhood Knights have the ability to erase an entire town from a map without a scratch. The Brotherhood are generally good guys, but they have their faults - (1) they don't care for mutants, (2) they worship technology, and in many cases, put it above human life, and (3) they don't like to share their choicest technological bits, despite the obvious benefits their technology could bring to the wasteland. It’s commonly accepted within the Brotherhood that the people of the wasteland are not responsible enough to use (and maintain) all of the technology the BOS has at their disposal. They are known trade some of their technologies with frontier communities and NCR states, but they keep the more sensitive technologies to themselves. It is believed that the current HQ of the BOS is the Lost Hills bunker in Fallout 1, but at the time of Fallout 2, the BOS is spread across the wastes in small bunkers and installations hidden from the eyes of common folk – finding them all and wiping them out would be a difficult and dangerous task. The BOS is divided into different ranks: Initiates are trainees who are expected to perform well enough in the training process to be promoted to Squires. After proving themselves, Squires are promoted to Knights. After many years of service and experience, the best Knights are promoted to Paladins - the pinnacle of the Brotherhood military. Paladins who survive to their later years become Elders, and they number among the Brotherhood ruling council. It is also possible to serve the Brotherhood as a Scribe. Scribes are responsible for copying the ancient technologies, maintaining the current technology and even experimenting with new weapons and other useful devices. Scribes rarely leave the safety of the BOS bunkers, but they are sometimes called into the field to examine a piece of technology or perform a task beyond the skills of the Brotherhood soldiers. It is said that the BOS symbol, broken down, represents each of these orders. The sword represents the Paladins, the wings represent the Elders (the “wings” control the movement of the sword), the large gear represents the Knights, and the two smaller gears represent the Scribes and the Squires, whose services keep the Knights supplied with the information and the manpower to get their jobs done. No one is sure what the circle means, however. Squires may be only in Fallout: Tactics (I don't recall "Squires" in Fallout 1, but my memory is hazy), and if so, replace the "Squires" with "Initiates" in the symbolic breakdowns. More on BOS to come – the above is just an introduction. Here’s that segment on the EPA that I mentioned before:


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E.P.A. AREA SUMMARY "We asked for the future. And we got it."

SUMMARY The Environmental Protection Agency is a bonus location for Fallout 2. It’s full of an odd assortment of puzzles, fighting, and various weird adventure “seeds” (literally), including, but not limited to: 1A. A parking lot jungle replete with several varieties of spore plants. 2A. A bizarre petting zoo. Filled with humans. Hungry humans. 3A. Sub-levels filled with exciting varieties of poisonous gases and virus-laden mutant fruit flies. 4A. A small government museum complete with dioramas! The exhibits on postholocaust America are especially amusing. 5A. A storage room full of new seeds for Arroyo. Some seeds grow into bad things. 6A. An entourage of custodial peevish holograms that provide tours and bursts of incidental binary strangeness. 7A. Various NPCs on “ice” (in hibernation). 8A. Computers filled with information on crop rotation and the F.E.V. virus. 9A. A clinically depressed Mr. Handee and a hyperactive drug-making appliance for Science characters. The EPA was supposed to use the Vault City/Vault 13 tile set for interiors (bright white, like original vault). Special scenery objects include an EPA parking lot sign, and color-coded symbols on the walls, running the whole range of the rainbow.

SPECIAL ITEMS Can of Dog Food (a la Mad Max) Insecticide Shampoo Pesticide Marijuana Pop-Rocks (if you drink water with them, you will explode in a horrible death animation) EPA Government Power Cell Bug Spray Canister (kills all insects instantly) Plant Spray Canister (kills all spore plants instantly) Gas Mask Solar Scorcher (this was its original location) Test Tube


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ART The EPA is 4 maps large. These maps are small, and these “levels” often share the same map. Parking Lot Entrance Level Level Red Level Orange Level Yellow Level Green Level Blue Level Indigo Level Violet

(Office Building) (Security, Public Relations, Museum) (Blood-Curdling Cafeterias and Sinister Conference Rooms) (Power Core) (Animal and Biological Testing; Arboretums and Cages of Creatures) (Hibernation) (Top Secret Research into Gender Modification) (Memory Core)

The breakdowns of map flow is listed below:


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EPA MAP!


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MAJOR ADVENTURE SEEDS Carnivorous Jungle: The player has to navigate a jungle filled with Venus Mantraps. This isn’t as much an adventure seed as a combat-based necessity in order to enter the EPA in the first place. Hologram War: The player can encounter some of the custodial holograms that still fill the EPA corridors. They were mostly used as tour guides while the EPA was still in operation, but ever since the “Big Silence/Great Static” following the “Big Flash,” they have become somewhat warped in their duties. They have taken the bureaucratic mentality to a lethal extreme, imposing regulation and regulation upon each other until they have become gridlocked in their duties and can no longer function. The heads of each division are currently arguing ad nauseum in one of the EPA conference rooms because the presence of a powerful magnetic field that keeps erasing their short-term memories (they keep repeating the same argument every five minutes, forget everything they say, then repeat it again). Only by fixing the problem with the magnetic coils, interrupting the conversation and ordering them to stop can the player stop the gridlock. Holograms can only be destroyed by an EMP grenade, or by stealing or destroying the EPA power core in Sub-Level Yellow. Gas-Filled Level: One of the levels is filled with poisonous gas. If the player wanders around this level, he will take considerable damage every round until he leaves or dies. A player can either make brief “hops” onto the level to steal things from the labs there or else find an oxygen mask hidden on one of the lower levels that allows him to breathe freely as long as he has it in one of his two hands. Ventilation Horror: In order to get access to the main EPA complex, the player has to navigate a series of ventilation shafts where he can only use small weapons against the inhabitants of the ventilation shaft: Giant Mantises, Small Scorpions, and the occasional man-eating plant.

OTHER SEEDS Static “Zzzzzt”: The player discovers one malfunctioning hologram that speaks only in static (like a fast food drive through speaker). If the player repairs the holograms projector (or slows down his speech), he can learn some important codes or other information. Mr. Chemmie! The player discovers a small appliance in one lab (Mr. Chemmie) that takes various raw materials (plants, beer, condoms, chemicals, garbage, Scorpion tails) and turns them into various pharmaceuticals like RadX, Mentats, RadAway, and so on. The player can experiment with the machine to create certain drugs or bizarre substances. Characters with a high Intelligence, Luck, or a high Doctor or Science skill can create special drugs that no other character can. Mr. Chemmie always “speaks” in exclamation marks. The Brave Little Toaster: In one of the abandoned kitchens in the EPA is a small, intelligent toaster with an IQ of 6000. All of its brain power is focused towards convincing humans to make toast.4 Dialogues with it will be somewhat one-sided, as the player will ask it a question, and it will respond with some question about whether the player will like toast or waffles. While the toaster seems like just an incidental piece of strangeness, the toaster does happen to mention in its dialogue (almost in ing) that it is broken and can’t access everything it needs to in order to successfully make toast. If the player repairs it, then the toaster can provide him with the following: the secret code for the vault in one of the New Reno casinos (which is otherwise near-unopenable), some secret codes for jinxing the slot machines out of their cash, and some other bonus items.

4

Yes, I know it's a pop culture reference. Surprised? Sue me.


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ABACAB: One of the computers in the EPA mentions a simple cure for epilepsy. Apparently, by repeating a series of letters with the proper inflections, a listener can be cured of either autism or epilepsy. If the player discovers this and goes to New Reno and says the code phrase to the Barking Man (who didn't make it into the game, so I put him in Planescape: Torment), then he will be cured and gives the player a minor reward (in addition to the minor experience award). No News of a Thaw: The player may discover some hibernation cells in the lower levels of the EPA, and depending on what “type” of character he is (combat, stealth, or diplomatic), he can free one of three hibernating humans that have been preserved since the great silence.

PRIMARY CHARACTERS Hologram 00000, Director of Science: A brilliant hologram that can’t express himself properly… an electrical short has damaged his vocal abilities, and now he can only communicate through displaying binary numbers (a character with a high Science or Intelligence can ‘read’ the binary codes, decipher what he is saying and fix him). Hologram 10001, Director of Security: A gung-ho marine hologram who peppers his speech with a lot of crude German phrases. He believes that everything in the complex should be killed and then the EPA allowed to “reboot.” Fortunately, he can no longer command any of the robots, all the weapon defenses have run out of ammo, and all he can really do is bluster about how much he would like to destroy everything if he was in charge. If the player performs some tasks for this Director, they can get access to the Security Locker Rooms, which holds some old ammo, weapons, and some armor. Hologram 12001, Director of Operations: A weasely, nervous-smiled male hologram. Only characters with a high Intelligence can make out what the hell he is saying since he uses so much doubletalk. Nothing can be gotten out of this director, since he has no authority over anything. Hologram 10031, Director of Ground Maintenance: A frustrated hologram who is in charge of all the ground maintenance at the EPA. The fact he has no physical body and none of the robots do anything he says has forced him to operate at 100% inefficiency for the past few decades. The other directors always bring this up whenever they can. If the player fixes the robots or takes care of some of the gardening and landscaping problems around the EPA (killing the lethal plants), the Director will “hire” them, allowing them access to the EPA medical cabinet and storage shed (which contains new seeds, chemicals, herbs, and various insecticides and weed killers). Hologram 40011, Director of Public Relations: This sexy-sounding (yet somehow prim and proper at the same time) hologram is in charge of all the tours and press releases. Her syrupy-sweet attitude and her constant stream of press releases gets annoying really fast. Nonetheless, the player cannot get to certain areas of the EPA complex without her… there are some portions of the complex that will only open if she leads the way (mostly the museums and petting zoo). Characters with a high diplomatic skill can get much more out of her than other characters.

SECONDARY CHARACTERS There are no secondary characters. It’s all or nothing in the cutthroat world of the EPA.

TERTIARY CHARACTERS Zzzzzt: A malfunctioning hologram that speaks only in static until he is repaired. When repaired, he is quite relieved and can provide the player with information on various mysterious objects in the EPA sublevels, along with codes that allow access to restricted areas. Brave Little Toaster: A genius-level toaster. It has a 6000 IQ. It likes to make toast. Mr. Chemmie: A cheerful little drug-making appliance.


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LIFE WITH THE GECK

What’s in a Garden of Eden Creation Kit? Well, here are my thoughts. Feel free to feed the flames. The following is inspired by a thread on the BIS forum started by Crazy Tuvok/Christopher Gannon. He asked some questions about the GECK, and here are my answers: I'll start by saying that the GECK is a plot device. A McGuffin. It had the ability to save Arroyo when in the hands of the Chosen One or a learned member of the wastes. As a crude plot device, it may also be used as seen fit to create plots and plant new and exciting adventure seeds as needed. As a result, all of the material in this section is subject to change based on the whims of whoever wants to play with the GECK. If you want it to be a magic box of 1950s science, that's cool - we might do it, too. However, my current take on it is, it's not some miracle device, it's a little more down to earth - more like a deconstruction kit, if you will. The GECK isn't really a replicator. It contains a fertilizer system, with a variety of food seeds, soil supplements, and chemicals that could fertilize arid wasteland (and possibly selected sections of the moon’s surface pre-conditioned to accept the GECK) into ing farming. The GECK is intended to be "disassembled" over the course of its use to help build communities (for example, the cold fusion power source is intended to be used for main city power production), and so on. Anything else people needed, they could simply consult the How To Books/Library of Congress/Encyclopedias in the GECK holodisk library for more knowledge. The pen flashlight was just a bonus. The GECK also contained some basic force field schematics as well as info on how to make adobe-type buildings from the landscape (or contain chemicals that can create "sand-crete" walls). As for clothing, the GECK contained codes that allowed the Vault to create more varieties of jumpsuits (and weatherproof gear) from their dispensers, which they could do anyway before the GECK. It's possible the GECK contained other codes that could unlock more functionality within the Vault computers that weren't initially available because they would jeopardize the survival of the Vault if they were used or scavenged (or else they would interfere with the Grand Experiment). Also, the GECKs also tell the Vault inhabitants how to disassemble sections of their Vault (or take extraneous systems from the Vault) to create new homes and defensive structures on the surface. The "just add water" comment/joke for the GECK in the description in Fallout 2 refers to the fact that part of the GECK's operations require that the Vault Dwellers use water from their water purification system in the Vault to help with the agriculture, irrigation, and possibly the cold fusion as well. It wasn't meant literally. If you want it to be, that’s cool, too. Go for it. To close, the "basic replicator" mentioned in the Fallout 1 manual is nothing more than a selection of seeds and fertilizers. The fact that it can "build basic items" is intended to mean that you can use it to help break down sections of the Vault into items usable in a community, as well as provide new codes for the machines in the Vault to create new items from the dispensers and computers. Tuvok's replies are: 1a. Wouldn't this [the seeds and soil supplements] date itself rather quickly? Sure, but the government subcommittees sponsoring the research and the GECK contractors (FutureTec) weren't really concerned about that. They were "relatively certain" the seeds would be viable in a postnuclear environment. They had done "thorough tests," and "all conclusions point to this as being the best option." The GECKs are a miracle... a miracle that they work. 1b. What may be suitable for planting in the present may not be suitable in 20 yrs. This is esp true I would think in the FO universe with its rather unstable ecosystem. I mean if one really wanted to be certain that what one was panting would grow the best thing to do would be to collect the seeds, spores etc from already growing food sources - these have a guaranteed fertilization rate. After all those corn seeds that were put in the GECK 50 yrs ago now have not sufficiently mutated Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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to endure the new Wasteland (even in a "normal" ecosystem, the only strains of plant that survive are those that mutate). You're absolutely right. The GECK builders had no idea what the post-nuclear world would be like, and they had no real way to anticipate it, despite their "thorough tests" (it's doubtful they gave it much thought, to be honest, considering how badly organized the Safehouse project alone was, not to mention the experimental nature of the Vaults) - still, it seems as if the seeds present in the GECK were viable for Vault 8. Evolutionarily speaking using old seeds would be like reintroducing a species that may have gone extinct or at the very least one that is not as cutting edge in its evolution. You bet. And that's dangerous on so many levels! Wheee! Also, as far as How-to books, schematics, sand crete etc.. this seems a bit heavy. That is a GECK is going to be utterly useless to those who cannot read, or don't have the raw materials to construct a force field, sand crete polymers etc. The GECK designers assumed that the Vault Dwellers would know how to read and how to operate various technologies present in the Vault - they didn't plan for tribals or other contingencies. They also didn't plan on the FEV getting released, or the fact the Vault Dwellers might be attacked by giant mutated scorpions or rats, either. On one hand, you could say they weren't too bright, and on the other hand, you could say they weren't prepared for the future of the human race to become an extended PostAtomic Horror movie. Silly rabbits! My impression of the GECK was that it really was a Garden of Eden. Given that most of the tribals in FO seem preliterate (yes I know I am avoiding overly PC flaming), and in pretty dire shape resource wise (unless the polymer construction requires Broc Plant and Xander Root) this seems to make the GECK kinda useless to them (nice suitcase tho =) I understand that originally the GECK was designed for Vault inhabitants and they therefore would be able to (presumably) procure these basics -so my question then is were the Arroyo Tribals merely "invoking" the GECK - that is, did it represent to them life in the Wastes without them knowing precisely what it was . This seems consistent with the Elder's original quest which speaks of the GECK in nigh mythic . The tribals were invoking the GECK as a panacea for all their problems. They saw it as a miracle device, and while the item is useful, it's not the miracle maker they considered it to be. Other follow-questions relating to this on the boards include: 5

Section Eight/Gareth Davies: I think there has to be more to the GECK than some basic agricultural supplies. If not, then Fallout 2 is a fool's errand. In some ways, it's just intended as irony. The GECK just isn't the holy cure-all miracle device the inhabitants of Arroyo intend it to be, but in the right hands, it's a very useful piece of Pre-War tech that can help establish a viable community. Section Eight/Gareth Davies: A high int character in Fallout can explain to Shady Sands about crop rotation, etc. So why couldn't a high int char in Arroyo do the same? Bam. Game finished. 2 seconds elapsed. Fun. Well, just knowing about crop rotation isn't enough if the crops are dying or if the land can't crops, etc. While sections near Arroyo could vegetation, the agriculture in the community was suffering - new seeds and fertilizers would help with that. Nope, it basically has seed samples, fertilizers, and other supplements, and a nifty power source - just knowing about crop rotation isn't enough. In the right hands (and in the hands of the Chosen One), its useful functions can be exploited, however, and be used as a foundation on which to build a stable city. 5

Of Microforte fame, for Fallout: Tactics fans... and Australian fans.


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All the crops in Arroyo were dying out, and the GECKs fertilization and new seed samples provide the basis of a new, healthy crop.

APPENDIX 1.0

Here's a list of Tell Me Abouts that are easy on the eyes, courtesy of Sebastien Caisse, the BIG WINNER. I have not tested all of these, but they probably all work - and it's a good place to start if any of you feel like quizzing the inhabitants of Fallout 1 about certain key words. (Thanks again to Michael Jeppesen who also provided a list of keywords.) ARADESH Aradesh ARADESH Dharma ARADESH Tandi ARADESH Razlo ARADESH Raiders ARADESH Vipers ARADESH Khans ARADESH Scorpions ARADESH Claw ARADESH Junktown ARADESH Spear ARADESH Station ARADESH Lair ARADESH Scorpion ARADESH Tower ARADESH Seth BARRY Chip BARRY Necropolis BARRY Set BARRY Watershed BARRY Hall BARRY Lou BARRY Ghouls BARRY Normals BUTCH Decker BUTCH Underground BUTCH Maltese BUTCH Thieves BUTCH Justin BUTCH Harold BUTCH Merchants BUTCH Daren BUTCH Crimson BUTCH Demetre BUTCH Trader BUTCH Butch BUTCH Beth BUTCH Rutger BUTCH Water BUTCH Missing BUTCH Market BUTCH Claw BUTCH Glow BUTCH Town BUTCH Heights BUTCH Junktown BUTCH Killian BUTCH Brotherhood BUTCH Elder


BUTCH Angel's BUTCH Adytum BUTCH Jon BUTCH Cathedral BUTCH Morpheus BUTCH Jain BUTCH Master BUTCH Weapon BUTCH Bob's BUTCH All-In-One BUTCH Followers BUTCH Harris BUTCH Falcon BUTCH Nightclub BUTCH Merchant BUTCH Hightower BUTCH Greene BUTCH Caravan BUTCH Romara BUTCH Traders BUTCH Tower BUTCH Caravans BUTCH Darkwater BUTCH Steel BUTCH Angels BUTCH Boneyard BUTCH Zimmerman BUTCH Weapons BUTCH Store BUTCH guns BUTCH Bobs BUTCH Iguana BUTCH Apocalypse BUTCH Death BUTCH Deathclaw BUTCH Hot BUTCH Oldtown BUTCH Old BUTCH Maxson BUTCH All BUTCH Junk CABBOT Initiate CABBOT Vree CABBOT Rhombus CABBOT Elder CABBOT Elders CABBOT Scribes CABBOT Knights CABBOT Hub

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CABBOT Exodus CABBOT Cabbot CABBOT Order CABBOT Paladins CABBOT Master CABBOT War CABBOT Army CABBOT Caravans CABBOT Cathedral CABBOT Chip CHILD Deathclaw CHILD Raiders CHILD Junktown CHILD Brahmin CHILD Chip CHILD Merchants CHILD Khans CHILD Garl CHILD Shady Sands CHILD Hub CHILD Tandi CHILD Aradesh CHILD Seth CHILD Razlo CHILD Police CHILD Caravans CHILD Traders CHILD Children CHILD Necropolis CHILD Spot CHILD Brotherhood CHILD Boneyard CHILD Towers CHILD Town CHILD Downtown CHILD Heights CHILDMEM Cathedral CHILDMEM Mutants CHILDMEM Master CHILDMEM Boneyard CHILDMEM Followers CHILDMEM Chip CHILDMEM Apocalypse CHILDMEM Necropolis CHILDMEM Set CHILDMEM Watershed CHILDMEM Hall DECKER Decker DECKER Underground DECKER Maltese DECKER Thieves DECKER Justin DECKER Harold DECKER Merchants DECKER Daren DECKER Crimson DECKER Demetre DECKER Far DECKER Butch DECKER Beth


DECKER Missing DECKER Market DECKER Claw DECKER Town DECKER Heights DECKER Cathedral DECKER Morpheus DECKER Jain DECKER Master DECKER Store DECKER All-In-One DECKER Falcon DECKER Nightclub DECKER Greene DECKER Hightower DECKER Caravans DECKER Romara DECKER Go DECKER Trader DECKER Harris DECKER Death DECKER Deathclaw DECKER Old DECKER Oldtown DECKER Children DECKER All GARL Khans GARL Garl GARL Junktown GARL Shady GARL Hub GARL Water GARL Tandi GARL Sands GARL Chip GARL That's us, you lackey. GARY Water GARY Necropolis GARY Set GARY Watershed GARY Hall GARY Lou GARY Ghouls GARY Normals GARY chip GIZMO Killian GIZMO Gizmo GIZMO Darkwaters GIZMO Gizmo's GIZMO Darkwater GIZMO Gizmos GIZMO Casino GIZMO Junktown HAROLD Richard HAROLD Master HAROLD Ghouls HAROLD Loxley HAROLD Cathedral HAROLD Vault HAROLD War

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HAROLD Decker HAROLD Grey HARRY Master HARRY Lou HARRY Set HARRY Shed HARRY Ghouls HARRY Norms HARRY Necropolis HARRY Unity HARRY Cathedral HARRY Chip HARRY Hall HARRY Water HARRY Human HARRY Normies HARRY Normals HARRY Children HARRY Children of the Cathedral HARRY Water Shed HARRY Lieutenant HARRY Lutenant HARRY Loo HARRY Lou Tenant HARRY Larry HARRY Barry HARRY Gary HARRY Terry HARRY Sally HUNTER Adytum HUNTER Followers HUNTER Cathedral HUNTER Rippers HUNTER Blades HUNTER Gun HUNTER Hub HUNTER Junktown HUNTER Water HUNTER Nicole HUNTER Boneyard HUNTER Runners HUNTER Chip IAN Water IAN War IAN Shady IAN Junktown IAN Hub IAN Raiders IAN Caravans IAN Chip IAN Sands IAN Followers IAN Cathedral IAN Garl IAN Master IAN Unity IAN Set IAN Watershed IAN Necropolis IAN Hall


IAN Library IAN Overseer IAN Medic IAN Healing IAN Vault IAN Vault-13 IAN Vault13 IAN Killian IAN Gizmo IAN Boneyard IAN Casino IAN Store IAN Deathclaw IAN Exodus IAN Initiates IAN Paladins IAN Scribes IAN Children IAN Brotherhood IAN Vats IAN Military IAN Base IAN Apocalypse IAN Mutants IAN Morpheus IAN Khans IAN Tandi IAN Alya IAN Diana IAN Gwen IAN Petrox IAN Tolya IAN Booze IAN Drugs IAN Seth IAN Aradesh IAN Razlo IAN Zimmerman IAN Regulators IAN Scavs IAN Blades IAN Nicole IAN Lieutenant IAN Psychics IAN Experiments IAN Police IAN Merchants JAIN War JAIN Master JAIN Cathedral JAIN Mutants JAIN Hub JAIN Steel JAIN Vats JAIN Holy JAIN Unity JAIN Brotherhood JAIN Flame JAIN Children KATJA Water

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KATJA Boneyard KATJA War KATJA Adytum KATJA Followers KATJA Cathedral KATJA Chip KATJA Garl KATJA Master KATJA Unity KATJA Set KATJA Watershed KATJA Necropolis KATJA Hall KATJA Library KATJA Overseer KATJA Medic KATJA Healing KATJA Vault KATJA Vault-13 KATJA Vault13 KATJA Killian KATJA Gizmo KATJA Junktown KATJA Shady KATJA Sands KATJA Hub KATJA Casino KATJA Store KATJA Deathclaw KATJA Exodus KATJA Initiates KATJA Paladins KATJA Scribes KATJA Children KATJA Brotherhood KATJA Vats KATJA Military KATJA Base KATJA Apocalypse KATJA Mutants KATJA Morpheus KATJA Khans KATJA Tandi KATJA Alya KATJA Diana KATJA Gwen KATJA Petrox KATJA Tolya KATJA Booze KATJA Drugs KATJA Seth KATJA Aradesh KATJA Razlo KATJA Zimmerman KATJA Regulators KATJA Scavs KATJA Blades KATJA Nicole KATJA Lieutenant KATJA Psychics


KATJA Experiments KATJA Police KATJA Merchants KILLIAN Gizmo KILLIAN Killian KILLIAN Lars KILLIAN Vinnie KILLIAN Doc KILLIAN Skulz KILLIAN Khans KILLIAN Vipers KILLIAN Darkwater's KILLIAN Crash KILLIAN Gizmo's KILLIAN Skum KILLIAN Cathedral KILLIAN Claw KILLIAN Hub KILLIAN Shady KILLIAN Necropolis KILLIAN Raiders KILLIAN War KILLIAN Strange KILLIAN Darkwater KILLIAN Morbid KILLIAN Darkwaters KILLIAN Gizmos KILLIAN Pitt KILLIAN Sands KILLIAN Pit LARRY Water LARRY Necropolis LARRY Set LARRY Watershed LARRY Hall LARRY Lou LARRY Ghouls LARRY Normals LARS Gizmo LAURA Followers LAURA Nicole LAURA Cathedral LAURA Morpheus LAURA Master LAURA Nightkin LAURA Dark LAURA Auditorium LAURA Sanctum LAURA Servitors LAURA Order LAURA Apocalypse LAURA God LAURA Mutants LEADER Set LEADER Master LEADER Water LEADER Watershed LEADER Hall LEADER Necropolis LEADER Chip

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LORENZO.MSG:{11000 LOXLEY Decker LOXLEY Jacob LOXLEY Police LOXLEY Harold LOXLEY Kane LOXLEY Crimson LOXLEY Traders LOXLEY Caravans LOXLEY Market LOXLEY Claw LOXLEY Missing LOXLEY Hot LOXLEY Town LOXLEY Heights LOXLEY Bob's LOXLEY Cathedral LOXLEY Brotherhood LOXLEY Angel's LOXLEY Blades LOXLEY Razor LOXLEY Merchants LOXLEY Spot LOXLEY Iguana LOXLEY Bits LOXLEY Bobs LOXLEY Steel LOXLEY Angels LOXLEY Boneyard LOXLEY Caravan LOXLEY Death LOXLEY Deathclaw LOXLEY Glow LOXLEY Oldtown LOXLEY Old LT Unity LT FEV LT Master LT Cathedral LT Vats LT Normals LT Vaults LT Morpheus LT Virus MASTER Unity MASTER Master MAXSON Brotherhood MAXSON Mathia MAXSON Cabbot MAXSON Vree MAXSON Library MAXSON Rhombus MAXSON Elder MAXSON Elders MAXSON Initiates MAXSON Scribes MAXSON Knights MAXSON Paladins MAXSON Hub MAXSON Butch


MAXSON Traders MAXSON Merchants MAXSON Disks MAXSON Player MAXSON Roger MAXSON Exodus MAXSON Army MAXSON Cathedral MAXSON Angel's MAXSON Gangs MAXSON Adytum MAXSON Claw MAXSON Harris MAXSON Maxson MAXSON Angels MAXSON Boneyard MAXSON Master MAXSON War MAXSON Caravans MAXSON Chip MEDIC Medic MEDIC Healing MISSBRO Brotherhood MISSBRO Steel MISSBRO Talus MORPH Nightkin MORPH Master MORPH Auditorium MORPH Sanctum MORPH Morpheus MORPH Order MORPH Caravans MORPH Hospitals MORPH Unity MORPH Lasher MORPH Followers MORPH Nicole MORPH Adytum MORPH Apocalypse MORPH Mutants MORPH Holy Flame MORPH Children MORPH Base MORPH Chip NICOLE Morpheus NICOLE Nicole NICOLE Laura NICOLE Jake NICOLE Library NICOLE God NICOLE Master NICOLE Nightkin NICOLE Cathedral NICOLE Adytum NICOLE Angel's NICOLE Followers NICOLE War NICOLE Hub NICOLE Brotherhood NICOLE Angels

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NICOLE Boneyard NICOLE Steel OFFICER Overseer OVER Water OVER Vault OVER War OVER Outside OVER Chip OVER Library OVER Healing OVER Medic OVER Vault13 OVER Vault-13 OVER Overseer OVER Waterchip RAZLO Khans RAZLO Garl RAZLO Junktown RAZLO Shady RAZLO Hub RAZLO Water RAZLO Tandi RAZLO Aradesh RAZLO Seth RAZLO Razlo RAZLO Sands REBEL Overseer REBEL Vault13 REBEL Vault-13 REBEL Vault REGULATR Adytum REGULATR Followers REGULATR Cathedral REGULATR Blades REGULATR Runners REGULATR Hub REGULATR Junktown REGULATR Chip REGULATR Store REGULATR Zimmerman REGULATR Necropolis REGULATR Glow REGULATR Regulators REGULATR Scavs REGULATR Boneyard RHOMBUS Vree RHOMBUS Rhombus RHOMBUS Talus RHOMBUS Elder RHOMBUS Scribes RHOMBUS Knights RHOMBUS Hub RHOMBUS Disks RHOMBUS Army RHOMBUS Boneyard RHOMBUS Paladins RHOMBUS Master RHOMBUS War RHOMBUS Exodus RHOMBUS Strange Army


RHOMBUS Merchants RHOMBUS Missing Caravans RHOMBUS Children of the Cathedral RHOMBUS Initiates RHOMBUS Chip SALLY Chip SALLY Necropolis SALLY Set SALLY Watershed SALLY Hall SALLY Lou SALLY Ghouls SALLY Normals SET Master SET Ghouls SET Mutants SET Necropolis SET War SET Unity SET Hub SET Brotherhood SET Shed SET Cathedral SET Chip SET Hall SET Children SET Garret SET Set SET Muties SET Brotherhood of Steel SET Water Shed SET Children of the Cathedral SET Children SET Watershed SET Water SETH Khans SETH Garl SETH Junktown SETH Shady SETH Hub SETH Water SETH Tandi SETH Aradesh SETH Seth SETH Razlo SETH Sands SETH Scorpion SETH Radscorpion SETH Scorpions SETH Radscorpions TANDI Aradesh TANDI Tandi TANDI Razlo TANDI Seth TANDI Raiders TANDI Well TANDI Scorpions TANDI Claw TANDI Junktown TANDI Hub

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TANDI City TANDI Scorpion TANDI Khans TERRY Chip TERRY Necropolis TERRY Set TERRY Watershed TERRY Hall TERRY Lou TERRY Ghouls TERRY Normals THERESA Chip THERESA Vault THERESA War THERESA Outside THERESA Overseer THERESA Water THERESA Waterchip TYCHO Junktown TYCHO Rangers TYCHO Chip TYCHO War TYCHO Wastes TYCHO Followers TYCHO Cathedral TYCHO Garl TYCHO Master TYCHO Unity TYCHO Set TYCHO Watershed TYCHO Necropolis TYCHO Hall TYCHO Library TYCHO Overseer TYCHO Medic TYCHO Healing TYCHO Vault TYCHO Vault-13 TYCHO Vault13 TYCHO Killian TYCHO Gizmo TYCHO Boneyard TYCHO Shady TYCHO Sands TYCHO Hub TYCHO Casino TYCHO Store TYCHO Deathclaw TYCHO Exodus TYCHO Initiates TYCHO Paladins TYCHO Scribes TYCHO Children TYCHO Brotherhood TYCHO Vats TYCHO Military TYCHO Base TYCHO Apocalypse TYCHO Mutants TYCHO Morpheus


TYCHO Khans TYCHO Tandi TYCHO Alya TYCHO Diana TYCHO Gwen TYCHO Petrox TYCHO Tolya TYCHO Booze TYCHO Drugs TYCHO Seth TYCHO Aradesh TYCHO Razlo TYCHO Zimmerman TYCHO Regulators TYCHO Scavs TYCHO Blades TYCHO Nicole TYCHO Lieutenant TYCHO Psychics TYCHO Experiments TYCHO Police TYCHO Merchants VREE Master VREE War VREE Discs VREE Brotherhood VREE Chip VREE Elder VREE Rhombus VREE Exodus VREE Strange Army VREE Merchants VREE Missing Caravans VREE Hub VREE Children of the Cathedral VREE Initiates VREE Scribes VREE Knights VREE Paladins VREE Holo WTRGRD Ration WTRGRD Rations WTRGRD Supplies WTRGRD Water

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FALLOUT 2 “SECRET” - CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD Ever wanted to be Captain of the Guard in Vault City? Well, it's simpler than it sounds. Ideally, Lynette is set up so that if you kiss her butt completely, your ability to give her ass a swirl is rewarded by making you Captain of the Guard.

If you're willing to buckle up and walk the dialogue minefield, you'll need the following things: • • • •

• •

Speech >= 75% AND a CHR > 7. Be able to speak to Lynette, the First Citizen of Vault City, without killing her. No small task. Choose every response that addresses her as "First Citizen," including "Bye" responses. Stop the raiders, show Lynette the book you got from the raiders AND Bishop's holodisk detailing his affairs with NCR (located in Bishop's personal safe in New Reno), and then deliver the disk to Westin in NCR. When you get back, mission accomplished, if her respect for you is high enough, she awards you Captain of the Guard status. You will notice most of the Vault City citizen dialogues will change, especially Sergeant Stark, who will be none too pleased with your promotion. Take Cassidy with you to Stark for more hijinks and a little more XP if you confront Stark on busting up Cassidy's bar.

The best way to insure Lynette's respect counter for you is high enough is to find a loop in the dialogue where you can continually address her as First Citizen - after becoming a Citizen, the best way to do it is to keep asking her about Vault 13 (if you haven't found it), choosing the response of: "First Citizen, it’s very important to me that I find the location of my ancestor’s Vault. If I may check the archives, I would be grateful." Loop it ten to fifteen times to be sure (you need at least a level 10 - I do it fifteen times to be sure), then just be sure not to anger her after that. One final word, if you want to become Captain of the Guard, do NOT keep stopping by to talk to her if you are not a Citizen. This... irritates Lynette. Every instance of this should lower her respect for you by 1.


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That’s it for this update; Icewind Dale 2 and more exciting designer diaries call. 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. Until next time, Chris Avellone @ BIS


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FALLOUT BIBLE UPDATE 7 JULY 29TH 2002 OR SOMETHING

THE SEVEN DEADLY SECRETS 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 [email protected] 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 ing Fallout, Chris Avellone @ Blaque Aisle Stoodios


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THE SEVEN DEADLY SECRETS 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 [email protected].

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: •


•

Providing technical . If you have any troubles with your Fallout disks or other Interplay games, you need to Interplay customer at one of the following addresses: For technical problems: [email protected] And for any other questions regarding Interplay products, barring hints and tips: [email protected] 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.

•


•

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


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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.


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 ed 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.


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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.


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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 itted) 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.


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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/FOTank): 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.


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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 This white text is fun. In the future, I may be leaving secret messages all over these updates. Be warned.


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FALLOUT BIBLE UPDEIGHT

SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER 2002 OR SOMETHING

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 [email protected] 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 ing Fallout, Chris Avellone @ Black Isle Studios


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FAST FORWARD


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: •


•

Providing technical . If you have any troubles with your Fallout disks or other Interplay games, you need to Interplay customer at one of the following addresses: For technical problems: [email protected] And for any other questions regarding Interplay products, barring hints and tips: [email protected]

•

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.

•


•

Providing any information, walkthroughs, hints, or 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


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I WANT TO DO A MUSH/MOD/MUD/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 s 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.


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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 reemergence 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 huntingfishing 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.


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.


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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 ed it off to me...

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


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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 itis 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.


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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 weaponsof 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.


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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 ( 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 , 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.


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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 ed Discovery Channel segment on it. What I do 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/war 158.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 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).


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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 [email protected] 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 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.


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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 selfcensored 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 that one... I'm a bit of a method writer, and when I wrote the Cathedral Cultists, I frightened some of my coworkers 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


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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.


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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 (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 ;)


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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 would preclude becoming an Elder because of seniority only - though you could also argue that BOS 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 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 see ghouls as filthy scavengers.


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...AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON.

I

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 tohit 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 meleespecific 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 . Was there any further plans to deveop the character of the party further? I notice that the early party(Vic and Sulik) 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).


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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 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. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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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' (able 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. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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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. ;)


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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.maxmovies.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 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 these better than I. Tim."


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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 ed i tor from on e of th e bi gges t Fall ou t s i tes in Cze ch Rep ub l i c 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 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 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!)


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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.


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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 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.


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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 (OKOK – 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 northern 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 . 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. (2° 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) 3. 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 books in the raiders safe. Now here's the trick - the 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 books, and got the holodisk from Bishop's safe and presented her with them all at once, and the quest worked. So let me


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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? 5. 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 Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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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


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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 ers, "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. ::Ducks pie.:: Thanks for the , 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?


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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 godforsaken place. Not like the good old days. No sir.} {109}{}{Yeah, the good old days. that time we...} {110}{}{It hasn't been the same lately, that's for sure. Now... what did we do together?} {111}{}{Don't me, do you? Well, you do seem to be a bit young.} {112}{}{What are you trying to tell me?}


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{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 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.


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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.


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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 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.


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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 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 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.


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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 1 II. Mark O'Green 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 . It had Albert Einstein on it; you got to recruit him into the party at some point, I think.

1

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.


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So the whole thing was built for the Apple II. If I 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 inhouse 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 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. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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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 s 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 , the Khans were mean gun thugs in FO1. Why were they changed?


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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 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 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 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 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.


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WHAT 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!

BIRTH, SCHOOL, WORK, DEATH Henri had some questions about the birds and the bees...

In Fallout Bible's timeline you say that the Vault Dweller was born in 2141, right? Then somewhere in the net (I don't where, it could be one of those bible updates) I found a .pdf file which included a "poster" in which read the rules for living in a Vault. One of the rules said that because the Vault's resouces are limited, the people in it are not allowed to reproduce during their stay there. That would mean that the Vault Dweller would have had to enter the Vault when the bombs dropped in 2077. Or are the rules wrong? I mean, Vault 13 was designed to stay closed for 100 years and only few people live that long, so they had to reproduce. Ed Note: It turns out the pdf files was from the Vault City sourcebook for the Fallout PNP game (which is going through a super revision, see: http://pub90.ezboard.com/bfalloutpnp53576) The next question is that in your Fallout Bible you said that the Arroyo Elder was Vault Dweller's descendant. However, in the game the player, the Chosen One, says all the time that the Vaul Dweller was his ancestor. That would mean the player and the elder were related, maybe even brother and sister, or that the elder was his mother. BTW, why does the Chosen One speak of the Dweller as an ancestor? It's only 80 years later than Fallout1! I hope you now understand how confusing this is. Here's the problem with Vaults and no reproduction, though: 1. War starts in 2077. 2. Vault 13 lets the Vault Dweller out in 2161. 3. So you're right - if no one in the Vault is allowed to have children, then there's some weirdness going on. So my opinion is that people within the Vault were allowed to have children, but the births were strictly controlled so as not to interfere with the equilibrium of the Vault population and fuck up the whole closed system. The Arroyo elder is the daughter of the Vault Dweller, and the Elder is your MOM! The word "ancestor" is used because it sounds more cryptic and tribal-ish. Oooohh.

SUICIDAL BOB TAKES IT ON HOME Suicidal Bob has some issues:

You said in the fourth Fallout Bible(i think) that the Enclave could remotely go through the logs of the vault's inhabitants and their Pipboys. So wouldn't they have been able to monitor the location of the original Vault Dweller and then the main character in F2. You would think that if they saw him in San Fransico then running around in Navarro at about the same time their Vertibird plans disapeared they would have disposed of the character. Did I totally misunderstand what you said? am I crazy? do I need to go outside more than one a year? Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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Yup - under ideal conditions, they probably could have monitored both. But there are problems with doing it in F1 and F2: (F1 is kind of irrelevant, since the Enclave wasn't really an idea then. Nor were the Vaults "experiments" then either, I believe, so let's shelve the Vault Dweller issue.) Before we go into an annoying list, the Vaults were an experiment. The experiment is useless if you can't collect the results. Some brainiac came up with the question of "hey, is there some way of collecting the results without compromising the experiment?" So why didn't they track the Chosen One? 1. The Enclave machinery, all the way down to communications, is not up to spec, at least as far as the Enclave guard's complaints in Gecko are concerned. 2. The computer networks weren't able to access all the Vaults remotely after the war - like the network the computer in the Gecko reactor, most links between systems were shut down or destroyed. They were the ones who sent the "all-clear" to the Vault 8 Overseer, though, which Lynette tries to explain - and can't. They also were able to transmit an "all-clear" signal to Vault 13, getting them to open the door. Once the President made the decision to go take the V13 inhabitants as test subjects, the vertibird teams scrambled, sent the signal and waited. No one did a search on all the PIPBoys. 3. Reading information on the PIPBoys within the Vaults is one thing, but tracking them (while possible) is a different story. They probably could (1) if they knew what frequencies to look for, and if (2) they had bothered to read the PIPBoy specs. My feeling was that they wouldn't even have considered trying to hunt him/her down with the PIPBoy - what would a tribal be doing with a working PIPBoy? As for a Vault 13 PIPBoy, they already had all the of V13 captured anyway, or so they thought. Plus Arroyo is many, many miles from Vault 13. Also, I have no idea what happened to the player's PIP Boy while it was laying at the bottom of the Temple of Trials. I doubt it was up to spec anyway. :) 4. No one in the Enclave (i.e., Chris Avellone) was really bright enough to think about this idea. Only a few people in the Enclave knew the in-depth secrets of the Vaults and how the inhabitants were monitored. This may help or may simply be more confusing. If it's more confusing, let me know. And sure enough it was confusing, so... As for the players pipboy being not up to specs, cant you bring it up to specs at the Vault 8 computer if you have high enough perception? Or does reformatting not count? Or the fact that theres wires hanging out of it not make it up to specs? and I was also curious about the button on the pip boy that is scratched out, is that actually supposed to say something or should I stop looking at it so hard? You can bring its programming up to spec, but not its mechanics, if that makes sense. I think that button was for another interface screen, but I'm not sure. I think only the artists on Fallout 1 know for sure. Let me ask, and see if I can get an answer for you.

BOTS, CAPS, AND VINES Jonathan Agnew peppers us with a three-parter:

A. In FoT were the 'bots at all based or inspired by the bots from wasteland? (not sure if you know anything about design elements of FoT) Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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I don't know. But I asked some of the designers from FOT, and they say, "no." So, no. B. Who suggested that there be a 'real' currency type (gold coins as opposed to bottle caps) in FO2 and why. Was it just that the team thought that enough time had ed to start making money again or what? Somebody (not me) didn't like bottle caps. I personally love bottle caps. But I am not allowed to be lead designer since the toilet paper incident. C. Was there any specific reason the Shi's vine (it was a vine right?) wouldnt grow in other soil (im talking about the radiation eating one in the end movie). I think it was intended so the plants couldn't "cure" the rest of the world, since we wanted to keep the rest of the world a nice and irradiated desert wasteland. It was just game-based reason. D. Can you direct me to FOB 4? Update 4 should be after Update 5 in the Other News section on the Fallout boards. Just do a "Find" for the word "Fallout," and you should find it.

MR. POSTMAN

Geraldo/Darkblade has some questions: I´m just another Fallout junkie (name´s Geraldo) and I´d like to thank you and everybody about this "Fallout Bible" thingie, this is just up my alley, getting to know pratically everything about my favourite game! And so, I´d like to "contribute". My questions are simple: 1 - Was the Fallout game inspired by Kevin Costner´s movie "The Postman"? I recently watched the movie and I must say I loved it, and found some things similar to Fallout, especially the "nameles hero roaming the wasteland" Postman-Wanderer thing. Yes, I know that fallout´s main inspiration is the game "Wasteland" (i´ve played it a bit, but it´s a bit tricky), but I guess the team had to get some ideas from other places as well. 2 - More technical question: I was playing Fallout 2 recently, and came upon Metzger, the slaver, with two npc´s by my side, Cassidy and Vic. When I asked to Metzger if he wanted to buy any slaves, Cassidy was listed as MacRae. What gives? 3 - And a last but not least: in the latest bible updates, you´ve been adding info about the several stages of the npc´s. My question is, is there any way we can check which stage is an npc at? Also, how do they level up? I had gone through four levels already and the damn npc´s never said those white "floats" of the levelling up. 4 - Minor thingie: can you list the songs that people have been recommending to you for fallout pen & paper? 1. Nope. The "Postman" movie has some good Fallout ambiance stuff in it, but the book is a lot better. It's possible the book had some influence since Senor Cain and Senor Campbell are pretty well-read. 2. (Mentioned above) MacRae was Cassidy's old name. Feargus originally called him that. MacRae is also Feargus' middle name (or one of his crazy ancestors) as it turns out. We changed it. Cassidy went through a crapload of names in the MacRae --> Cassidy transformation, but all the others sounded like pussies. So Cassidy it was. 3. There's no way to check to see what level the NPC is except with the Alertness perk (which should check current hit points). Then you can contrast with the level info and see where the NPC is. The NPCs should have a chance of leveling up when you do, depending on their level up rate - don't know why it Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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wouldn't be happening in your case. 4. I will in a few more months. I haven't gotten a lot of responses, and some aren't really 50s tunes - I can still post them in a later update, though.

CHAMBER OF

DEATH!

Shards (no relation to MMORPGs shards, I believe) had a "quick, stupid question" that was nonetheless easy to answer... well, easy for Chris Taylor to answer, that is: The 10mm pistol, although being an automatic, has a revolving chamber, and the description even says "Each pull of the trigger will automatically reload the firearm until the magazine is empty." Why the discrepancy? Miscommunication between the artists and the designers? Chris Taylor (who recently received a well-deserved promotion at his new place of work, so send him cookies) says: The answer is: DOH! The longer answer: Miscommunication. I think the text was written before the art was done, or the art was redone and the text wasn't updated (it's a little fuzzy). Should be "...until the cylinder is empty." description completely.

But I'd probably want to rewrite the

pax, -Chris

FALLOUT TACTICS AND HOT, STEAMY SEX

Alex Lim (also known as Alexsi the 13th) had a question about having sex with Fallout Tactics. Does the relationship with the Reaver go anywhere? - Its in Newton when you save the female Reaver (Glenda Close) using a male character. The objective is to save the 4 Reaver elders. Well, Alexsi, we've consulted many of the FOT designers, all of them who have tremendous amount of sex on a regular basis, and they say: Dan Levin: Even though the Glenda Close professes her instant and undying love for the character (either sex would have the same result... I think) she still ends up in the interment camp/brotherhood inquisitors regardless (which should be mentioned in the mission debrief). This fatal attraction was a spin off Fatal Attraction (starring an actress with a similar name). It also illustrates the no nonsense, heavy handed approach of Brotherhood rule. Hope this helps. Ed Orman: I'm not sure. I think Dan may have written her to be, shall we say, slutty, and she might have tried to come on to the player in her dialogue. But it wouldn't have ever eventuated in anything (such as her waiting for you back at the barracks in a slinky negligee).

THE UNION OF ATOMIC WORKERS

John Sellars (On Da Bounce) had a question about those wacky Union of Atomic Workers. The Union of Atomic Workers are mentioned by the gun merchant in the Old Town Section of The Hub. IIRC his name is Jacob. [Sorry, I don't have the whole game memorized. ;) ] I appreciate any information on them, it sounds like they would be an interesting aspect of the FO universe to develop if there isn't much on them.


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Professional game designer and assassin, Scott Bennie (who is interviewed later on in this issue of the Fallout Bible), says: "I did Jake, though someone probably rewrote the dialogue, since the tenor is terser than Benniespeak. :-) I figured that for every successful organization that made it in theWasteland, there'd be ten that failed, and so I came up with some organization for Jake that explained where he got his weapons that wasn't "I used to be in the Brotherhood"... it's a throwaway bit intended to make the world a little messier; it's more believable if everything doesn't tie together neatly. Hope this helps." - Scott Bennie

GIVING THE WORLD THE 13 Chris Avellone asks:

Why does the Fallout flag have 13 stars? Tim Cain says: Leon [Leonard Boyarsky] said he used that flag because it looked cool and he didn't want to use a standard American flag with 50 stars. Eventually he planned to make up something about 13 super-states or something, but he never did.

AS ALWAYS, FIRM CHESTS JUST OUT OF REACH

Justin "Solid Snake" Braman, in addition to his formidable knowledge about the anatomy of the Tarrasque, would like to know how to get his hands on those big, bulging chests in Broken Hills. The answer to your Deathclaw model question (although the real nerds have probably beaten me to it) is: The Legendary TARRASQUE! One question that has always bothered me is as follows: In Broken Hills during gameplay of FO2, Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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there are several chests along the north edge of the first map area that are (apparently) unreachable. At least I've never been able to get to them. I'm just curious as to if you know what they contain. If so, what? This has driven me crazy since I first saw them and I want to know if I'm missing out on something cool. Thanks for reading this and I hope to receive an answer soon, but I won't be suprised when you say "Nothing." First, Justin, you're dead on on the tarrasque. Mr. Wain, however, was the first one to get it (he got it in five hours of the post), but everybody who's responded has gotten the right answer. Your answer to the chests in Broken Hills is a technical answer - basically, when we do/did "stores" in Fallout 2, we had fake chests placed off-screen that handled all the store contents. As it happened, the ones in Broken Hills were accidentally placed so people can actually see and get to them. As for the way to get to them, I don't recall the bizarre series of steps you have to take to get there - but if you post the question on the BIS boards, someone will be able to answer it, I'm sure. Or if you do a search for "Broken Hills" and "chests" you might turn up some leads on the BIS boards WHEN THE SEARCH FUNCTION STARTS WORKING AGAIN (otherwise I would have posted it here).

FALLOUT TACTICS AND THE VAULT PROJECT The ever-deadly Kane had some Fallout Tactics questions I couldn't answer:

As we all know that the Vault Project is a great experiment. So what is vault 0 used to study? And the second question is, is The Calculator one of the ZAX series? If not, which company or organization designed it? Well, Kane, here's what two Microforte guys had to say (well, one Microforte guy - Ed's too busy counting the sweet, sweet cash he made working on Freedom Force for Irrational Games): Ed Orman, the Thunder from Down Under, says: 1. Vault 0 is designed to repopulate the continent if the other vaults fail. It contains the biggest "brains" of the time, and their genetic data. 2. The Calculator was designed before the ZAX series, to control and regulate the vault network. Originally, it was supposed to do just that, but it eventually grew to the point where it could control the vaults individually (had the connections with each vault remained constant). And Gareth Davies said: 1) "The sturdy Vault 0 was to be the nucleus of the vault network. Housing the greatest leaders, artists and scientists, the inhabitants of Vault 0 were to reunite the vaults and lead the people to a new life, a new world. But, after the bombs, the world would be a harsh one. To ensure the creation of a postnuclear utopia, the Vault Dwellers would need help. Machinery was constructed to tame a land hardened by the ravages of war, then tempered by nuclear winter." 2) As far as I know the Calculator was completely unique, and unrelated to Zax, but can't find any documentation to either side of the theory. I think it's fairly safe to assume Zax and the Calculator have very little in common.

FALLOUT 2 INTRO... HUNH?

But Kane (whose English is fine) had even MORE questions... In the FO2 intro, we can see some Enclave Soldiers opened an unknown vault, and killed 3 dwellers. I gauss after that, other dwellers would be killed as well. So my questions is: 1. Which vault is this unknown vault? 2. Why did these Enclave Soldiers kill the dwellers? Don't they wanna know the result of the experiment?


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(My English is poor, hope you can understand what I wanna know:) Hey, Kane. That was Vault 13, and those citizens were killed. The official story the Enclave soldiers were sticking to was that "these Vault Dwellers were resisting capture," but it was bullshit. The Enclave soldiers were so keyed up after waiting for the Vault to open that they opened fire against the orders of their superiors. They then ran in and stormed the Vault, capturing the rest of the citizens. As a piece of development trivia - that was actually not the way the movie originally ended. The original ending had the Vault door open up, and a child stepping out into the wasteland and looking around. Then it faded to black. It wasn't very interesting. But it made you think. What was that kid looking at? The desolation of the wastes? A mirage?

MARK MY WORDS

Sean McGrorey had a question... about MARK. What happened to the guy (Marc, I think was his name) who accompanied Harold into the military base? He said that Francine got killed by a robot and grey fell into a vat, but Marc just dissapeared. Did he make it out alive or did he perish along with Francine? No one knows; the mystery of what happened to Mark has never been explained. He was wounded, returned to the surface, and Harold never went to look for him. ::Cue mysterious music:: Oh, and I have a suspicion that Mark was a reference to Mark O' Green, the lucky fellow who wrote Harold's dialogue, but I can prove nothing.

THREE FROM THE MASTER Richard Grey/Dweller had these three questions: Hi I have few question 1.What Harold did in period between Falloutom 1 and Falloutom 2 ? 2.Exist supermutants before approach Master on the scene ? 3.What happened with Mark ? Harold spoke something about his survive. 1. What Harold did between Fallout 1 and 2 is a mystery. To tell the truth, even if asked, Harold himself may not . He did stay in the Hub for a time, then went wandering, and eventually made his way to Gecko.

2. It's possible, yes, although I couldn't find any mention of them in the documentation. It wasn't until the Master started mass-producing and standardizing them that they really became identified as "super mutants." 3. No one knows what happened to Mark - see above. ::Cue Yet More Mysterious Music::


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ARROYOS

Chris Avellone asks: How did you guys come up with the name Arroyo? Was it based on a real world location, or was the name chosen just because it because the town was literally an arroyo? Tim Cain says: The name came first. I was looking on a map and saw the word. I liked it, both the sound of it and what it meant. So I picked it as the name, and then told the artist making the map what arroyo meant, so he'd be sure to make it be an arroyo.

APPENDIX: PERLS FROM RON PERLMAN

While I was sorting through the narration text, I ran across a series of death lines we were planning to have Ron Perlman record, but we didn't have time (at least I think they weren't recorded). In any event:

DEATH SPEECHES

[FALLOUT 2 ENDGAME]

1. DEATH 1 • • • • • • • • •

•

Rest in peace, Chosen One. You have perished. The wasteland has claimed your life. Arroyo attempts to send out others to search for the GECK, but they die quickly, and the village soon follows. You have died. Your village is lost, doomed to die of starvation. You have died. Your quest to find the Garden of Eden and return it to your village has failed. You have died. You shall never know what happened to your kidnapped village. You have died…along with everyone else on earth. The Enclave triumphs, releasing the FEV virus into the atmosphere. Your death has sealed the fate of everyone else on earth. The Enclave triumphs, releasing the FEV virus into the atmosphere. Millions die, and the earth falls silent again. You fought valiantly, but to no avail. The Enclave triumphs, and soon the entire world dies.


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2. JOKE DEATHS • • • • • • • •

You’re dead. Again. You’re dead as a doornail. Time to reload. Hoped you saved your game, cause you’re dead. Here’s a picture of your corpse. Not pretty. Boy, are you stupid. And dead. Ha ha ha ha ha. You’re dead, moron! You’re dead. Maybe you should start the game over with a different character. Your point allocation sucks.

THE END

In any event, that’s it for this upd-eight. If you have any questions, see anything wrong, see anything you take exception to, feel free to email me at the address at the beginning of this update - or post it on the message boards. Email is usually faster... even with Outlook acting all screwy. Until next time, Chris Avellone @ BIS This white text is fun. In the future, I may be leaving secret messages all over these updates. Be warned.


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FALLOUT BIBLE NEIN

OCTOBER 15? NOV 6? 2002? AH, SCREW IT.

THE FALLOUT BIBLE UPDATE NEIN Here's the ninth 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, seventh, and eighth 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 [email protected] 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 an interview with Fallout designer/programmer Jess Heinig who wrote Zax, helped set up Junktown, and spends his time trying not to body-block Enterprise's Jolene Blalock, some assorted trivia that Jess was happy to along (curious how the end cinematic sequences in Junktown were supposed to go?), brahmin and gender identity issues, mutants and sex, info on Patrick the Celt from F1, some questions and answers (but not as much as FOB 8), lots of pies being thrown by Canadians, the truth about the Brotherhood of Steel, honoring the Fallout flag, the winner of the Ink Spots contest, and yet more fallout from our favorite post-holocaust world of the future. Thanks for ing Fallout, Chris Avellone @ Black Isle Studios


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FAST FORWARD


Before you do, though, read #2, below. 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/won’t answer because I am busy and I hate you. They include: •


•

Providing technical . If you have any troubles with your Fallout disks or other Interplay games, you need to Interplay customer at one of the following addresses: For technical problems: [email protected] And for any other questions regarding Interplay products, barring hints and tips: [email protected]

•

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.

•


•

Providing any information, walkthroughs, hints, or 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. Or at least that's the story I'm sticking to. If you sent in five hundred questions in one email, I can personally guarantee I won't be getting around to it until some time next year, so don't hold your breath, Mr. Question Man.

FEV AND VEGETATION: SPECIFIALLY, CARROTS Through the power of bumping despite the loss of search functions on the BIS board, I am proud to present the arguments of Senior Carrot: Carrot is not to be confused with the Flaming Carrot comic book character. BTW, "MCA" is an acronym for Mr. Chris Avellone (me), for the uninitiated. I feel so street. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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As has been publicly stated work on FO3 has not started, I hope this gives us a good deal of time to fully work out the universe issues that have arisen. The current FOB thread has grown into a monolith of off topic posting and one thinks any more sensible suggestions would be lost within its dark expanses. The big hit list goes as follows: The Enclave (should be sorted now) The timeline (needs to be sorted) FEV (the debate should end here) The problem as perceived by the/some fans: MCA in writing the FOB lost track of the essence of FO its pulp sci fi element, instead of sticking to the universe where modern day physics don’t apply it seems a modern day excuse has to be conjured up to explain everything. Here we have the use of FEV as a tool to explain everything weird and wonderful on the FO wasteland. Now clearly everything is meant to be the result of 50's radiation, e.g. every monster film in the 50's is due to radioactive material mutating everything, now this is what I believe that Fallout was trying to capture. Why RadScorpions are called RadScorpions etc. Instead we have the miraculous wonder brush of 90's style genetic mutation in the form of FEV to explain everything! Now ignoring all the disparities between FOB FEV and proper FEV as described in several scientific journals in FO1 let us examine where said Wasteland mutating FEV came from. There are 2 possible locations of FEV the Mariposa Base where the large scale production/testing and research of FEV was to take place with huge quantities stored in vast underground vats, and the one bunker (obviously part of a chain) at the West Tek facility where initial experiments took place where there would possibly be small stores. Now let us theorise on ways in which said FEV would be released, Mariposa detonation was post FO1 (when most of the mutations had taken place) that said there is an indication of leaking into the surrounding area. The other would be FEV surviving the nuclear strike on West Tek, how would such a virus survive the nuclear fire sweeping the facility, or be able to across the great distances it is described as doing in the FOB through a dense cloud of superheated particles and raging fires? Of course the scenario was preposterous from the start, there is no way FEV could have penetrated the surrounding wasteland in the short period of time in high enough concentrations from the small stocks available to mutate all the creatures. Also one of the main races in Fallout, the Ghouls who to first time players are clearly zombies created by good ol' radiation have to be explained away be a supposed fog of FEV billowing across the Californian countryside and propelling itself under the vault 12 door? When both the prominent creators of the Fallout universe disagree with this, one has to wonder if a change is in order? But that’s why this thread is being written and there’s still time to do it! The game is called Fallout, surely the universe should have a greater emphasis on the effects of its namesake in the guidelines set out clearly in the original then trying to update everything to today’s universe (seen also in the guns etc.). How to rectify the problem: Have the description of FEV lifted directly from the FO1 logs (where it actually make sense and is something rare and interesting).


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Make reference to the fact the universe is not our universe (indicating differing events on the timeline e.g. no Watergate) and as such the radiation laws that apply are those from the 50's not the modern day. And as such weird and wonderful beasties can be created by said radiation and fallout without having to explain it all away with FEV. Forgive Carrot for his grammar, he's English and doesn't understand how we do things in the colonies. For anyone new to this argument, the following answers have been derived from it: - FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) explains the more grievous mutations in the wasteland (the Master, the Master's pets such as the floaters and centaurs, super mutants, Harold), and radiation caused most of the other giant-style mutations you see (scorpions, rats, ants, etc.) and some of the others (ghouls). - The Fallout world is much like Torg - physics and natural laws are not the same as in our universe, but are based instead on 50s sensibilities and pulp era comics - the Fallout universe is what people in the 50s believed the future would be (with a lot of nuclear warheads dropped on it). As a result, there are endless stretches of desert, radiation will cause giant mutations, rayguns and brains in jars are realities, you might trip over a few giant evil tentacular blobs with plans of taking over the world, see plenty of clunky robots with glass dome heads and lots of blinking lights, and science in general is not only heavily atomic and optimistic, but it is also much easier in the Fallout universe (or also, "Science!") thus allowing people to create ultrasound guns, death beams, and lasers, usually in little or no time (especially when an invasion from outer space occurs). Most modern day concepts concerning artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and so on aren't part of the Fallout universe, since people in the 50s didn't recognize that many of these concepts existed (well, except the terminology for artificial intelligence, which was officially used at the Dartmouth Summer Conference on Artificial Intelligence in 1956, if I have my facts straight). - In case this is news to anyone, the Fallout world is a divergent Earth. Really. And the world blew up in 2077, not in 1950. Thanks to everyone who participated. BTW, STILL waiting on those two prominent creators you cited as evidence, Carrot. ;)

INK SPOTS CONTEST ANSWER

The winner of last month's contest was DJ Slamák, who guessed that the first choice of the Ink Spots song for Fallout 1 was "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire." Rock on, DJ, you crazy muthuh, you.

Odin actually got it first, but he refused credit, so...


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And moving on to our next contest:

FEV EXPLAINS ALL, HALF, A THIRD OF IT? All right, here's the contest for next time - other than FEV I (and II), name two other non-real-world viruses that exist in the Fallout universe. Go! And NO, despite his appearance, the Master is not a virus. Neither is Feargus. So ha ha ha ha, funny people, now do some research.

BROKEN FOOTLOCKERS IN BROKEN HILLS Tim Geoghegan (whose last name makes him sound like a sci-fi villain), wanted to extend help to those of you who want to get to those mysterious footlockers in Broken Hills. Interestingly enough, DJ Slamák didn't mention this, so he is now on my shitlist of people that will burn when I get my flamethrower. Of course, if he mentioned it and I forgot, then I will still set him on fire. I believe you were asked about the footlockers in Broken Hills and how to get to them in FOB 8. Well, DJSlamak, who runs Vault of the Future, a Fallout fansite hosted by Duck and Cover, has a guide togetting to those footlockers with screenshots. http://www.duckandcover.net/~Slamak/f2/shots/bh_lock.htm ===== Tim Geoghegan Thanks, Tim.

THAT MISSING PIP BOY BUTTON AND VAULT ZERO Pawel/Ausir, being a gentleman and a scholar, also provided me with the following information regarding that missing PIP Boy button on the interface and Vault Zero: 1. The broken button in PipBoy interface was meant to be "clues" (it was in the FO1 demo, AFAIK). 2. The Vault 0. Here's my theory: i think, that in fact, if BoS elders knew rumors of the Vault 0 from the beginning, while they did not know anything about the Enclave until FO2, it could have been a public secret, which could have had 2 reasons: i. to get rid of unwanted people - politicians and journalists, who weren't always ing the government policies, some not-that-important scientists and celebrities, and get rid of them - if they knew about the Enclave, and were not let in, they could have exposed its existence. Since they were let in to Vault 0, they didn't even suspect, that there can be an even more secret base. ii. to cover up existence of the Enclave - the more people knew that the Cheyenne Mountain Complex was changed into a government vault, the less people would suspect that the government would in fact hide on an oil rig. it could have been part of the experiment - maybe the Calculator was MEANT to go mad?

Thanks, Ausir.


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RIPPING TANGLER'S HAND Somebody, probably DJ Slamák asked about an item called the "Tangler's Hand" in the last issue. Turns out (according to the Fallout 1 Editor), it looks like the Tangler's Hand belonged to a fellow named "Tangler" (surprised?) who has an AI packet that identifies him as a leader of the Rippers. Or at least he had Ripper AI in his scripting block, whatever "Ripper AI" means. In case you don't know who the Rippers are, they were part of the (defunct) inbred familial gang of Rippers - presumably, they were a rival gang that lived where the Mother Deathclaw is in the Boneyard, as evidenced by the "Ripper" movie poster outside her house hutch. According to some old dialogues, their building was fortified with traps and landmines, and they fought with the Blades a lot. Oh, in an old dialogue file, Nicole mentions that Morpheus used to be a part of them - I can't get her to mention it in the game, which probably went the way of the Dodo when the Rippers were "cut." If anyone can get her to say this, let me know the dialogue path, and the wealth of nations shall be yours.

I WANT FIGURES Langy asks: Will there be statistics of how many people lived before the war and how many died, how many turned into ghouls, how many people the Master dipped, how many became Super Mutants, and things like that? Nope.

BUT WHAT ABOUT WASTELAND? Ausir asks: Though you will not refer to Wasteland directly, are you at least going not to contradict the game in the Bible or in the nextFallout games (like make an ancient monastery in the place of basecochise and las vegas destroyed in the war etc.)? Well, although Fallout has Wasteland influences, they are two separate universes, so there's going to be contradictions.

A.I. bloodbathmaster2 asks: Will there be an explaination to the AI? in fallout 2, it was said that AI got bored and started the great war. I'll try to do future sections dealing with the Machine Intelligences like ACE, Skynet, Zax, and others. What Skynet (not its real name) says most likely isn't true, and I don't like the concept of artificial intelligences in Fallout - they're too 1990s/21st century.


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THE HOLY HAND GRENADE? Ausir asks: will you include info about the holy hand grenade? :)))) Stats for the Holy Hand Grenade on the right... Range: 15, 2 lbs., 300-500 points of damage. It costs 4 AP to throw. Save it for Horrigan. Unfortunately, you can't get the holy hand grenade in the actual game because of a bug. The good news is that there's a patch out there which you can find at: http://www.nma-fallout.com/binaries/fallout2.shtml Have fun. The patch, I believe, is courtesty of Maxim Sorokin (aka Seawolf).

BRAHMIN

I think Red1 asked about brahmin once on some chat or another. So here is an entry for brahmin. Important! What follows is the rough draft layout for the "critters" section for the Fallout PNP game. If there's anything about the layout that's missing or you think would be helpful to you as a GM, please email me. Or at least have the courtesy to bitch about it somewhere where I can eavesdrop on it.

FALLOUT PNP: BRAHMIN! Brahmin are mutated brahmin cattle with two heads. If you just said, "hell, I thought brahmin were something from India," well, you'd be right. A bunch of brahmin made their way to the states 1 long ago for crossbreeding purposes. When the bombs fell, brahmin grew two heads. They are quite hardy. They are also a delicious toasty brown, as you'll notice in the picture to the left. They attack by head-butting or trying to gore someone with their horns, so brahmin-tippers beware. For some reason, only the left-most brahmin head has horns, which raises some curious 2 gender identity issues. Brahmin serve a vital environmental niche in Fallout - they form the foundation of survival for many species in Fallout, most notably, humans. They also form the backbone of the NCR economy. They also form the backbone of the New Reno "NCR brahmin rustling" economy. Brahmin can pull carts, old cars, plows, and dead bodies. Brahmin can be driven into herds then used as stampedes on rival tribal villages which is better than a Delayed Blast Fireball any day of the week. Brahmin can be worshipped. Brahmin 1

I don't know exactly when. If you know, let me know, since cattle history isn't my forte.

2

Yes, yes, the brahmin in the Fallout 2 opening movie doesn't have this problem, but it's sick and dying, so it doesn't count. The very kind Sharon Shellman has since told me that the heads were done differently to distinguish the genders, and some brahmin have either both male heads or both female heads.


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hair can be woven into bags and ropes. Brahmin hide can be stretched over wooden or metal rods to make canoes, if you're into that sort of thing. Brahmin sinew can be used for bowstrings or thread for stitching. Brahmin shit is great fertilizer (and fuel for campfires). Brahmin meat is delicious - well, only because no one in Fallout knows what a succulent Pre-War steak used to taste like. Brahmin are a source of milk that is like modern day milk, yet terrifyingly different. Brahmin can be tipped over. Brahmin bones can be used as clubs, knives, arrowheads, eating utensils, hoes, or even dice, and their skulls look really scary dotted all over the desert landscape. Their horns can be turned into drinking horns if you feellike getting medieval. Brahmin can be used to distract a hungry deathclaw. Brahmin fat makes decent soap. Their hide can be used to make tents (or tipis/teepees), clothing, belts, saddle bags, shoes, leather armor, or a bizarre brahmin-looking disguise so you can sneak up on other brahmin and listen to their conversations. You can also use their tails as fly brushes or paint brushes, depending on your level of artistic talent. There are domesticated brahmin and wild brahmin. PCs are encouraged to approach wild brahmin like they would a domesticated brahmin, because the end result is amusing for the Overseer. Wild brahmin can forage for themselves, and they can be found across the wastes, gathered into small herds, wandering here and there, munching on the dirty weeds scattered throughout the desert. Fortunately for the ecology of the wasteland (and the survival of their species), brahmin can go for long periods of time without water - they don't need much to survive. They have a strong sense of smell, and they don't hesitate to stomp over any wasteland predator that threatens them or their calves - well, except deathclaws, because no one messes with deathclaws. Brahmin are a great source of cattle drive and range war adventure seeds, if you feel like getting your Louis L'Amour on for a few sessions. There are rumors that the smell of brahmin shit is highly addictive. If you wanted to give brahmin perks, you'd probably want to give them three levels of the Perk: Strong Back, and possibly the Perk: Acute Sense of Smell, but no one really cares. Brahmin, like giant ants, are believed to be the result of radiation. This is a little worrisome, since they may be radioactive.

DOMESTIC BRAHMIN ST PE EN CH IN AG LK Hit Points Armor Class Action Points Attack (Hd Butt/Gore Melee Dam Poi Res Rad Res Sequence Heal Rate Crit Chance Unarmed (Butt/Gore) XP


7-8 3 7-8 1 2 4 1 35-55 4% 7 3 AP 7+1-3 40% 16% 6 2 1% 75-85% 80-100

“WILD” BRAHMIN ST PE EN CH IN AG LK Hit Points Armor Class Action Points Attack (Hd Butt/Gore Melee Dam Poi Res Rad Res Sequence Heal Rate Crit Chance Unarmed (Butt/Gore) XP

8-9 4 8-9 1 2 5 3 45-65 5% 8 3 AP 12+1-3 45% 18% 8 3 3% 85-105% 100-120

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Unlike most other animals, brahmin do have damage resistance, which is why their hides are good for armor: Normal Laser Fire Plasma Electricity EMP Explosive

Domestic 0/20 0/20 0/20 0/10 0/30 0/500+ 0/10

Wild 2/25 0/20 0/20 0/10 0/30 0/500 0/20

BRAHMIN: TARGETTING CHART

The PNP game will also include the critical hit charts for brahmin, like so:

BRAHMIN: HEAD Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70

Damage Multiplier 2 2 2.5

Critical Success Effect -

71-90

2.5

-

91-100 101+

3 3

Knocked Out. Instant Death. Way to protect all of humanity, wasteland warrior.


Secondary Effect EN Roll or Knocked Down. EN –2 Roll or Knocked Down. -

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BRAHMIN: LEFT FORELEG (LEFT ARM) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70

Damage Multiplier 1.5 1.5 2


71-90

2

-

91-100 101+

2 2

Right Foreleg Crippled. Right Foreleg Crippled.

Secondary Effect EN Roll or Right Foreleg Crippled. EN Roll or Right Foreleg Crippled. -

BRAHMIN: RIGHT FORELEG (RIGHT ARM) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70



71-90

2

-

91-100 101+

2 2

Left Foreleg Crippled. Left Foreleg Crippled.

Secondary Effect EN Roll or Left Foreleg Crippled. EN Roll or Left Foreleg Crippled. -

BRAHMIN: BODY (TORSO) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70 71-90

Damage Multiplier 1.5 1.5 2 2

91-100 101+

2 3

Critical Success Effect Ignores Armor. You know, because that amazing "brahmin armor" can stop bullets. Ignores Armor. Instant Death, "hero."

Secondary Effect -

-

BRAHMIN: RIGHT HINDLEG (RIGHT LEG) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70



71-90

2

-

91-100 101+

2 2

Right Hindleg Crippled. Right Hindleg Crippled.


Secondary Effect EN Roll or Right Hindleg Crippled. EN Roll or Right Hindleg Crippled. -

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BRAHMIN: LEFT HINDLEG (LEFT LEG) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70



71-90

2

-

91-100 101+

2 2

Left Hindleg Crippled. Left Hindleg Crippled.

Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70 71-90

Damage Multiplier 2 2 3 3

91-100

4

101+

4

Critical Success Effect Ignore "Armor." Ignore "Armor." Ignore "Armor" and Blinded and Lose your fucking turn, stupid brahmin! Ignore "Armor" and Blinded and Knocked Out. Instant Death.

Secondary Effect EN Roll or Left Hindleg Crippled. EN Roll or Left Hindleg Crippled. -

BRAHMIN: EYES Secondary Effect LK Roll or Blinded. LK -3 Roll or Blinded. -

-

BRAHMIN: UDDER (GROIN) Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70 71-90 91-100 101+

Damage Multiplier 1.5 1.5 1.5 2 2 3

Critical Success Effect Ignores "Armor." Ignores "Armor." Ignores "Armor." Ignores "Armor." Ignores "Armor."

Secondary Effect -

Critical Success Effect Ignores "Armor." Ignores "Armor." Instant Death.

Secondary Effect -

BRAHMIN: UNCALLED Roll 0-20 21-45 46-70 71-90 91-100 101+

Damage Multiplier 1.5 1.5 2 2 2 3

ORIGINAL STORIES Suicidal Bob sayz: I read in the back of the Fallout 2 Strategy guide, the section that talks about the process the design team went through to develop the storyline and such, and it states two storylines that were


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thought about. One of them being about an intelligent computer making a city of androids, and the main character going into space, the other about the Master's army capturing mutants for slave labor. I was wondering if in the actual storyline of Fallout, did these happen, or were these ideas just scrapped when the storyline that was used for Fallout 2 was selected as the one to be used? They were scrapped, and they never happened in the Fallout universe. They were ideas by the original team that were being tossed around before the second original team, Tim, Jason, and Leonard, began work on F2. I haven't been able to find an original copy of the original story doc, but if I do, I might print it in all its original glory.

JET? WHEN? MYRON? HOW OLD? HUH? Daniel Horn raises a good point: This is where I send stuff for the Fallout Bible... Right? Yes. Well, I was wondering this: How old is Myron, and how long has Jet been around? Because helooks to be late teens, possibly early 20's. However, if he is that young, as far as I can figure out Jet wouldn't be around. Mrs. Bishop got hooked on Jet by Bishop (before they got married) and for that she got kicked out of Vault City. However, Angela Bishop, her daughter, is what, late teens, early 20s? Because presumably she had Angela after she got married to Bishop, and thus after she got addicted to Jet, Jet would have to be at least as old as Angela Bishop, and Myron would have to be older (at least 10- 15 years, I figure) than Jet. But he doesn't look it. Did Myron REALLY invent Jet? Or is it just his usual egotism? You know what, you're right - that was a mistake on my part. Myron is supposed to be 17-20, but that kind of messes things up if you take the Bishops into . I had always thought he had made Jet pretty recently (within a few years) so that the Mordinos could rise to power. Myron really did invent Jet. He's really, really smart and really, really annoying. So ignore the Bishops and their messed-up rendition of events - they're been taking too much Jet anyway.

TIMELINE STUFF Just a quick update on timeline credits: BTW, the original timeline (not yet printed, but it shall be coming to a future update near you) that I originally credited to Scott Campbell was done by Brian Freyermuth and approved by Scott. Much of the post-F1 stuff was originally laid out by Rob Hertenstein, who I do not know where he has absconded to, but if he is reading this, I would love to hear from him. My apologies to the mis-credited parties - and knowing is half the battle.

LEAP OF FAITH Dan Spitzley would like to say: Neither Fallout handled Leap Years, did they? I was just thinking that that might make for an interesting adventure seed. What if the Fallout universe does have Leap Years, but every February Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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29th the entire population is put to sleep by the "bad guys" for some nefarious purpose, waking up on March 1st none the wiser. This would explain why nobody ever sees Feb 29th on the PipBoy. As soon as it comes along, everybody's abducted by aliens or something. Alternately, perhaps a bug in the PipBoy calendar that everyone "follows" has made the world forget about Leap Years since the war, meaning that maybe soon it will be dark in the afternoon or they'd have snow in August since they miss that one day every 4 years. Just a reminder that I do not accept adventure seeds, especially from insane programmers who have been working too hard.

BOS CORRECTIONS Well, according to the Fallout 1 editors, it looks as if there are the following internal breakdowns amongst the Brotherhood of Steel ranks for the Scribes and Knights, and Paladins. Knights and Scribes have the following ranks: Initiate, Senior Initiate, Apprentice, Journeyman, Senior, and Head Knight/Scribe. And... Paladins are identified as being Junior Paladin, Paladin, Senior Paladin, and Head Paladin. Fun? You bet it is!

HOLOTAPEZ Sean Meskill would like to say: I the last installment, you mentioned how you were not sure a laser could read a tape. They can. In 69, I believe, RCA made a prototype system called Holotape for video playback, that read hologram data on plastic tape with a laser. It really worked and that type of tape is completely plausible. You can see pictures of that system here: http://www.cedmagic.com/history/holotape.html All you guys did with fallout was extrapolate a real technology to a viable conclusion without knowing it. So that is holotape, explained at last. Sean Thanks, Sean.

IAN AND HIS GUN Several people asked about what kind of gun Ian was to give you in his dialogue in Vault City. The answer is: I haven't been able to find out. Ferg knows, but he won't tell me because he doesn't talk to me anymore except to spit on me.

AUSIR IS WHORING HIS SITE Ausir wanted me to publish the link to his Russian website... It's actually Polish, but I can't resist. (www.fallout.scifi.pl) So there it is.


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THINGS MAN WAS NOT MEANT TO KNOW: CHET AND MR. CHEATER DJ Slamák is messing around with forces he cannot comprehend (and Petruschka had the same question): I really didn't start this Bible update with the intention of it being a DJ Slamák issue, but the world is a crazy place. Hello Chris, I've been fiddling around with master.dat and found... something. Can you look into it? File: master.dat/text/english/dialog/cccheat.msg {100}{}{You see Mr. Cheater.} {101}{}{He still looks like a cheater.} {200}{}{Hello I am Mr. Cheater. How may I help you?} {201}{}{Will you kidnap my tribe?} {202}{}{Will you put me on the Shi quest?} {203}{}{Will you put me on the Elron quest?} {204}{}{Will you put me on the Brotherhood quest?} {205}{}{Make it so I've already been to the military base.} {206}{}{I've kidnapped your tribe.} {207}{}{I've put you on the Shi quest.} {208}{}{I've put you on the Elron quest.} {209}{}{I've put you on the Brotherhood quest.} {210}{}{Now you have been to the military base.} {211}{}{Thank you, Mr. Cheater.} And a similar one; this is yet another Vault City official: File: master.dat/text/english/dialog/vcchet.msg {100}{}{You see the Illicit Allocations Chief, Chet.} {101}{}{You see a shifty-looking man wearing a Vault 13 jumpsuit.} {102}{}{You see the Illicit Allocations Chief, Chet.} {103}{}{You see a shifty-looking man wearing a Vault 13 jumpsuit.} {104}{}{Hey, there. I'm the Illicit Allocations Chief... but you can call me Chet. You need something?} {105}{}{Need anything else?}


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{106}{}{Set the endgame flag, Chet. I'm all done.} {107}{}{Make me Captain of the Guard. Now.} {108}{}{Make me a real citizen, if you please.} {109}{}{Make me a fake citizen and give me the papers.} {110}{}{Make me a kicked out citizen.} {111}{}{Change my reputation.} {112}{}{(Doesn't work) I need a character in my party.} {113}{}{Nope, nothing.} {114}{}{To what?} {115}{}{Make me a slaver.} {116}{}{Make me a childkiller.} {117}{}{Nothing...just lower my karma by a 100.} {118}{}{Nevermind. I wanted something else...} {119}{}{Nope, nothing.} {120}{}{Who?} {121}{}{Marcus.} {122}{}{Lenny.} {123}{}{Vic.} {124}{}{Myron.} {125}{}{Nobody. I have more needs.} {126}{}{Nevermind. Bye.} Those were two cheat characters that were scripted into the game so we could test reactions of people in those locations in the game - they were never intended to be in the final version. I writing Chet - and he was very useful, indeed. Notice the skill and imagination woven into each of Chet's lines, lovingly crafted so he blends seamlessly into the game environment while providing much needed services for designers and testers. Truly, he is a work of art. I do not know if his scripts are still in the game. If they are, I would exercise extreme caution before using them. Much badness could result. Quests could be thrown into turmoil from which Fallout 2 may never recover.

THE WAY THINGS WERE IN THE OLD DAYS Ausir/Pawel is playing a little safer than DJ:

By the way (again), have you seen these pictures? They are in the FO1 demo files, but were not used in any of the games. According to Tim Cain they were meant to be GURPS Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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advantages/disadvantages, when Fallout http://fallout.scifi.pl/index.php?id=falloutboy.gal&img=artg

was

still

GURPS.

These are fun. Check them out, people. See the Color Blindness, Obesity, and Odious Personal Habit disads in all their glory! As a prize, can anyone tell me which of the three Disadvantages Tim Cain has above? For bonus points, you can add Josh Sawyer's Disads from the three above, too.

SEX AND MUTANTS

Neil has a question about mutant sexes:

How come no female mutants are ever seen? I have never heard of a female ghoul or supermutant. Are they actually all over the place? Have they just been mutated so badly you can't tell? There are female ghouls and super mutants, but they look almost exactly like their male counterparts. In fact, Vree can't even determine the sex of the super mutant in her autopsy report in F1, although you could argue that might be because the wild dogs bit the super mutant's pecker off.

THE VAULT DWELLER... ALIVE?! Set/Seth has a question about life and death:

Ok, is the vault dweller still alive? You keep mentioning that he left Arroyo but I never hear *you* say that he died. I mean, FEV can cause a person to live longer (super mutants, ghouls). You can't deny that the vault dweller got exposed to FEV (for that matter this applies to the Choosen One as well at Mariposa) while dealing with the Master's army. So, it may actually be possible that *the* vault dweller still is alive and kicking? Or is this just too silly to consider? ps. You can refer to me as Set. For some strange reason all my closest friends do. Bastards. It's doubtful that he/she's still alive, but no one knows what happened to him or her. Just leave the poor Vault Dweller alone, okay?

MORE B.O.S.

Cameron, in his quest to the Brotherhood of Steel, has some questions: a) Where does it say that the original warriors of the BoS came from the Military Base? 3

It's in one of the holodisks that you get in the Brotherhood of Steel or the Military Base ("Captain Maxson's Diary") - it details what happened when Maxson decided to desert from the US Armed Forces at Mariposa. b) Was the main base for the BoS originally some kind of military vault? I just kind of find it hard to believe that they built it. It used to be a government/security bunker/base, called Lost Hills. c) Can you tell me a little about the BoS during Fallout 2? I just always assumed that the main base grew above ground and some outposts were set up in the NCR. That's pretty much it. Last word from the south is, the BOS is still centralized around the Lost Hills bunker, though they do have listening posts and other bunkers and bases scattered throughout the wastes. 3

I can't which one it's in. If you DO , let me know, and I'll give you some sort of prize involving your name in a funky font.


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d) Did the BoS capture Navarro after the destruction of the oil rig? No one knows what happened to Navarro after the Enclave was destroyed. It's unlikely that the BOSseized it after the events in F2 because they didn't have a strong military presence up North at the end of F2. They would have been interested in taking it, however - although they would have suffered serious casualties. e) Who thought up the idea with the airships at the beginning of FOT, cause it kinda...well...sucks. Beats me. I don't know too much about FOT, but I'll ask. f) The system of FOT wouldn't even work. The new recruits come from the villages, but the villages hate the BoS. If a village ever decided to leave the BoS, then it would be attacked and the soldiers would rebel. It wouldn't be long before oher villages would leave the unity and a civil war would occur. I'm not trying to be picky or anything, I just noticed that one day. (That would make an interesting base for a sequel) You could argue this either way, but I don't think the system wouldn't work. Again, my FOT knowledge is sketchy, so I really couldn't say for sure. I'll along your question.

MORE B.O.S. ANSWERS

Greg, in his quest to the Brotherhood of Steel, had some : In update #8, you accepted a correction on the BOS that you needn't have. What I'm referring to is when you grant: "You're right - the limited number of council would preclude becoming an Elder because of seniority only" (p. 16). This doesn't follow at all--why can't it simply be the case that the four senior-most of the BOS are the Elders? (Probably with the High Elder being a hereditary Maxson-family position or elected within the council.) The way you were thinking about it seems to have been something like an absolute minimum-age standard for Elder status, e.g., all paladins over age 50 are automatically Elders, or something like that. But it needn't work that way--relations of 'elderhood' are relative, after all. Anyway, it's a minor point, but I thought I would point it out since the title "Elder" does suggest that it's based on seniority rather than some kind of election or appointment. Thanks, Greg.

MORE B.O.S. ANSWERS, 2

I wanted to elaborate some more on the BOS answers from last time. First off, Maxson's dialogue file in F1 gives the order of succession for the Knights and Paladins: "The Knights make the weapons. And when he's good enough, a Knight can advance to become a Paladin and then an Elder and so forth. Right now Rhombus is the head of the Knights." "Paladins are in charge of all security and outside activities. I tradin' with the Hub, goin' on scouting missions for the Elders. Ah man, those ware a good times." Still, Vree's disk contradicts this - apparently a patrol of Knights were the ones that found the super Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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mutant's corpse out in the desert. They may have been on some Knight-ly training exercise.

KAGA-GOO-GOO

Pawel Dembowski/Ausir wants to know what's up with that "Kaga" guy in the Fallout 2 encounter tables (and Petruschka had the same question again, which is weird - cut it out you guys!): Here's a series of encounters with a guy from Arroyo called Kaga, which i found in the master.dat files. Answer - Basically, he was supposed to be a "rival" for the PC, and you were supposed to encounter him throughout the game. According to the encounter description I found: Kaga Kaga is an aspiring bandit. The player will encounter Kaga throughout the game in various encounters with thief type groups. Kaga has more than the average amount of hit points and movement points. The player should not be able to kill Kaga outright. In the first 4 encounter areas Kaga will easily escape from the player. Kaga is a progressive character and will grow in power and abilities as the player moves to more and more difficult areas of the game. If the player encounters Kaga in let’s say Kaga’s third encounter area, then Kaga will no longer be encountered in the first or second encounter area. Encounter Area 1 Area Name: ARRO Area Name: ARROK Encounter Name: Outcasts Male Primitive Body Type Inventory: 5 Spears (bag containing 1 Super Stimpak $1000) HP: 100 Kaga will flee after getting hit one time. Kaga has 12 movement points. Average skill in throwing – will hit about 70% FOB 8: 10-1-02 Black Isle Studios Page 20 of 34 Attack I should have been the Chosen One! How dare Arroyo cast me out of the tribe. I will have my revenge on you! Kaga will send you to the next life. Flee We will meet again! I have never been beaten before! I will dedicate myself to your destruction. Set kagamet=yes If player kills Kaga set Kaga=dead Encounter Area 2 Area Name: BAND Area Name: MOD Encounter Name: Bandits


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Male Hero Leather Armor Inventory: 14mm pistol, ammo, (bag containing Assault Rifle – empty $250) HP 200 Kaga will run after taking 75 points of damage. Kaga has 12 movement points. Low skill in Small guns – will miss 90% Attack If kagamet=yes This will be the last time we meet. After I kill you, I will burn Arroyo to the ground! Feel the wrath of Kaga! I am the great Kaga! I am to be feared by all. Kaga will have your head for a trophy. Surrender and your death will be quick. Flee I’ll be back! You cannot kill the great Kaga! You’re lucky Kaga has business elsewhere. We shall meet again. Set kagamet=yes If player kills Kaga set Kaga=dead Encounter Area 3 Area Name: RAID Area Name: RDRC Encounter Name: Raiders Male Hero Metal Armor Inventory: Assault Rifle, Ammo (bag containing mini gun – no ammo $500) HP 250 Kaga will run after taking 100 points of damage. Kaga has 12 movement points. Low skill small guns – will miss 80% of time Attack If kagamet=yes You again! If kagamet=yes I grow tired of our constant meetings. Chosen One hmpf. Let’s end this. You will regret you ever heard the name Kaga! My skills have increased since we last met. Flee This is getting to be a bad habit. Kaga needs to train a little more. Kaga will return. Set kagamet=yes If player kills Kaga set Kaga=dead Encounter Area 4 Area Name: NCR Encounter Name: Marauders


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Male Hero Combat Armor Inventory: Mini Gun, Ammo (bag containing Laser Rifle – no ammo $1000) HP 300 Kaga will run after taking 100 points of damage. Kaga has 12 movement points. Large guns – will miss 65% of time Attack If kagamet=yes This time I’m prepared for you. The Chosen One will never return to Arroyo! Kaga will crush you! Kaga fears no one! Hold still, so Kaga can get a good shot. Flee We will meet again! This is not the last you will see of Kaga. Kaga definitely needs more training. Set kagamet=yes If player kills Kaga set Kaga=dead Encounter Area 5 Area Name: FRAN Area Name: FRAN2 Encounter Name: Mercenaries Male Hero Power Armor MKII Inventory: Laser Mini Gun, 3 Plasma Gernades, 5 Stimpaks, Large Energy cells (bag containing Pulse Rifle $5000) HP 350 Kaga will fight to the death. Kaga has 12 movement points. Energy Weapons – will miss 50% of time Attack If kagamet=yes I tire of the chase. Let’s finish this. If kagamet=yes This is the last time you will meet Kaga. You are no match for Kaga I look forward to sending you on to your next life. You have been a worthy enemy. If Karma good This part of the wastes doesn’t need a do-gooder like you. If Karma bad After I kill you, I will be the most feared person in this part of the wastes. I am looking forward to going home to Arroyo…to burn it down. Kaga will be famous for killing you. Flee Kaga will not flee in this battle. Player Floats These floats only appear once when the player has a random encounter with Kaga Area 1 – no float If kagamet=yes Area 2 – It’s that Kaga guy again. If kagamet=yes Area 3 – So we meet again, Kaga. If kagamet=yes Area 4 – Go away Kaga! If kagamet=yes Area 5 – Kagaaaaaaaa!


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Basically, from what I gather from his dialogue, he was part of the Arroyo tribe, and he bears the PC illwill for becoming the Chosen One instead of him. And that's all I know.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Andrej has some questions:

My name is Andrej, I am working on translation of yours Fallout Bible to russian language. I want not only to translate it, but also to combine all updates in one article. That is why I require your confirmation for the reconstruction of original text. Also, I have several questions about your Bible: 1. You wrote "In the Fallout Bible, "all psykers were officially wiped from the genre when the Cathedral was vaporized in nuclear fire", but later "Now a question about Brotherhood of Steel. How did they know my hero's name??? :-) They're psychic, can read minds, consume human beings and absorb their thoughts, and neurolink to computers like the Master. No secret is safe from them." Does it means that psykers in Cathedral is not the last of them ? Hey, Andrej, first of all, thanks for the translation - it can't be easy. To answer your questions: That was a joke. Basically, I was listing all the powers the Master was capable of (and based on that, if I here another scientific argument based on what's "realistically" possible or not in the Fallout universe, the Master makes that argument irrelevant). No psykers survived the explosion of the Cathedral. 2. You said: "BTW, the talking deathclaws were destroyed at the end of Fallout 2. Xarn and Goris did not go on to create a new species. They are gone. Kaput. Goodbye. In fact, any mutant animal that talks can safely be assumed to have died at the end at the exact minute that Fallout 2 was over." but in previous update John Deiley said: In any case, there is a chance that two intelligent deathclaws survived to continue on the species. I realize that they are both males, but that is fine. When they were engineered by the Enclave, the intelligence gene was made male specific and dominant. What this means is: Any intelligent male that mated with a non-intelligent female would (most likely) produce intelligent offspring. Who is the true? BTW in FOT was a lot of talking deathclaws. The more recent update is the correct one. There are no more talking deathclaws after F2. An d fe w my qu es ti on s : I n on e of you rs u pd ates you gave l in k for th e si te : http://www.iamapsycho.com/fallout/index.htm it is the site of Pen and Paper Game. Is the documentation on this site is correct? If that so, i read their article about Anclave and have one qustion, they said that "Poseidon Oil Platform was only a surface part of the underwater city of Hydropolis. Hydropolis was designed for large number of inhabitans (somesing about 800.000 I suppose). If it is true, that means that oil platform in F2 it NOT Hydropolis, it is only "the upper part of an underwater city built before the war, named Hydropolis, which is the capital of the Enclave. So, it is possible that destroying Oil Platform at the end of F2 is not the entire Enclave's destruction at all, but only sealing it underwater... temporally. The information on the Fallout pen-and-paper game site is cool, but some of the material in the books has been created by fans and was not in the game. It's pretty cool, though - anyone who hasn't checked it out, should head on over and take a gander. Second question: 2077 is pretty far to the future, perhaps some space programs were put to life? I mean humans could have base on the moon, or something? Future and Space Program: Yes, it's possible. Sputnik (and the fear of it) and the space race was very 1950s (and early 60s).


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And last question, in FOT i saw that some of Super-Mytants were working for solvation of their sterility problem, do the have any chance for success? FOT sterility problem for super-mutants: I don't know much about FOT, but I would not want the super mutants to succeed, since the fact they only live one generation makes them cooler to me.

LITTLE NICKY

Nicky has some questions: 1. In Fallout 1, you can talk to Harold in the hub. If you ask for his story, he says that him, Richard grey and a bunch of people went into the military base to kill the mutants. When they got their asses kicked, Harold ed out near the F.E.V vats. Then harold says that when he was discovered in the wasteland, he had changed and it was because of something in the base. Why didn’t he turn into a mutant? He is a mutant - the FEV mutated him. 2. Just how old is Harold? In F1, he said he was alive when the bombs dropped. I’ll guess he was about 35. F2 is in 2241 and I think the bombs were dropped in 2077? So that would make him 164. Correct? If not, how old is he? No one knows how old Harold is - not even Harold. 3. In F1 you can find a psyker named Moore in the masters vault. He is described as "A scruffy looking fellow." In F2, you find Thomas Moore in vault city, who is also described as "Scruffy." Coincidence or not? No coincidence. Both were most likely named after famed scruffy Interplay artist, Chad Moore, who constantly aspires to be as cool as me and fails because he is too scruffy. 4. Is that thing next to the elder in the F2 opening movie a huge Bong? Yes. A big thanks goes out to our artistic Fallout hero, Scott Rodenheizer. 5. In Gecko, you can ask Wooz to tell a story. He tells you about a floating head in hell, and it floats around. He thinks its hilarious. Where did this story come from? Some kind of inside joke by the programmers? We used to have a game in development that had this floating head running around doing stuff. I think it was called "Severed Head." It did not see the light of day. When Torment came out and featured a floating head, "Wooz" threatened to sue me for a million dollars. 6. I heard somewhere that you can get a sixth toe in the toxic caves. Can you? You need to step in the toxic goo with no rubber boots on, and then sometime later, you will start to grow a 6th toe, which you can have amputated in Vault City and carry around with you. 7. Where is the cat’s paw issue #5? Cat's Paw Issue #5 is only available when you bring 10 Cat's Paws to Miss Kitty in New Reno. When you give her the ten, she gives you Cat's Paw Issue #5. 8. In the f2 strategy guide there is an "easter egg." Where is it? It is located in the basement of New Reno Arms, behind one of the piles of junk.


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THOSE DAMN FIRE GECKOS Alex Lim/Alexsi the 13th wants to know:

I'd like to ask why the fire breathing geckos could not be skinned? According to one of Fallout 2's lead designer, Matt Norton, that was a bug. There weren't any special hides for them in any case.

SOME QUESTIONS FROM REDD NMMMO

Redd, who is Canadian, had some comments and questions. First, he takes exception to how he is addressed: Ok, well, first of all it's red_nnnno - R E D _ N N N N O. Not that it matters, I like to be called "Red!" when using the nick anyway. PLEASE CREFER TO ME AS RED! and/or SEBASTIEN CAISSE (You asked to put the names in caps so your eyes were sure not to miss it...) You got it, "Redd." Second, please refrain from sending -sendin tips... It's annoying as at least 95% of the tips are covered in most walkthourghs. And again, reguarding that, along with Per Jorner (someone who send a few questions in), I sure hope you took a look at his walkthrough ( http://.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html ) as it's the most complete out there and answers a lot of obscure questions (and on top of it I contributed a lot to him out :). Any questions about the game itself can have it's answer found there so when people ask hints/whatever you might like to refer to them there - and heck, why not feature a link to it in the bible? Your "mind-control" has worked. If you guys want to see a walkthrough that has stuff, I think you can go to the link above. I haven't checked. It might actually take you to some Viagra site or something. Third, about the "party.txt" NPCs. - Car: The car is in fact used as an NPC that follows you. Redd is correct, even if he is Canadian. - Maria: It's Miria. Can't tell if it's just a typo or her previous name though, it's just the way it's spelt in the file... There you go. - Doc: I really don't know, however I have a hunch it's the doctor found in V15. There's no proof but once V15 is cleared he seems so alone! I think my woman PC has the hots for him really. *update* Looking at the PID found above (16777378) removing 16777216 (0x1000000) you get 162. Looking at 162 in the pro_critters.msg you magically get -> Doc Jones. I kick ass (Note: using this technique you can find all other NPCs the same way, so well, it's a tested approach :) I further checked using Mapper2 (by Dims) and the proto items matched on the map. No dust on this guy. - Chicken: Well damn, it's the easter egg... I though that referred to the "chicken" in Modoc... You might be right. I will check with Jason Suinn. - Karl: Yes, it's Karl at the Den from Modoc... (did the same checks as on Doc). I guess you originally had to actually bring him back to Modoc - something I suspect you actually needed to do


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with Jonny originally and protect him/them at the same time, since he has an entry in the party table too.. Fourth, I had other stuff but it's late and I forgot about them and it's getting a bit late. And why didn't I get a nice little render for winning the 8ball contest! Oh sure THEY get all the nice stuff! ::Rolls eyes::

Oh yeah. The toe. Well, just to be picky it's not officially posion damage as that would increase your posion level, while using the toe decreases you max HP (and thus also normal HP). Let it be forever recorded that Fallout fans run neck and neck with Trekkies in the marathon race of insanity. Additionally - since you designed New Reno - that reference was in fact about those good old Sierra quest games ins't it? I guess. I think it might have been an Infocom reference, since I played the hell out of those. "Redd" would also like to humbly point out that the Fallout flag has ELEVEN stars, not THIRTEEN, so yes, I am a complete and utter moron. He even sent me a diagram because he seems to have shitloads of free time, so if Redd's boss is reading this, make a note of that and double his workload.


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For more nitpicking, one of your titles is "from 13 to 31", with "8 questions answered". Last I checked 13 and 8 were 21, not 31... Is there something eluding me here? __________________ Red! - Sebastien Caisse Yes, Mr. Smarty Pants. I was referring to the fact that you start from Vault 13 in Fallout 1 and he gave me 31 questions, of which I answered eight. It's new math, but if you squint really hard, you can make sense of it if you feel compelled to do so. Christ, I hope not all Canadians are like you.

INTERVIEW: GIVING JESS HEINIG THE “13”

I'm going to try and start interviewing old of the Fallout 1 and 2 (and if I'm lucky, Wasteland) development team in future updates. Jess Heinig is a programmer who was brought on board to help with Fallout 1, and is responsible for quite a bit in the game, including Zax and the fact you were able to have NPC companions in Fallout 1. I put "the 13" (questions) to him, and here are his answers. Buckle up. 1. Introduce yourself. Who the hell are you? I'm Jess Heinig. That's what it says on the interview section, right? This thing has a header, doesn't it? Or are you some kind of slack bastard? I lurched into game design with Fallout, then moved on to spend about three and a half years Gothing it up at White Wolf. Most recently I've slouched my way back to California to work for Decipher on the Star Trek roleplaying game. This means that I get to visit the Paramount studio lot, and therefore, that I am inherently an alpha-geek. 2. How did someone like YOU start working on Fallout? Desperation. No, not me, Interplay. In short, Fallout was still GURPS back in the day. I knew GURPS. I was working computer science stuff in college. I wrote a short character generation program in C++ and showed it to Tim Cain (the project developer). I correctly declared int main(void) instead of void main(void) in my main function. I got a job. 3. Yeah, yeah, but what did you do on Fallout? Things and . . . stuff. Mostly things that gave you experience, or henchmen, or information. Things such as the scripting of characters in Vault 13, Junktown, Adytum, the Glow, and the Military Base. Random encounters. If it was in one of those areas and it talked to you, shot at you or wandered around, I probably wrote some or all of the script that made it do what it did. All of the party -- although we weren't really set up to have party . . . 4. What was you most favorite thing, area, or item that you worked on in Fallout? ZAX, the pseudo-intelligent computer in the Glow, was my favorite little baby. That came from an ancient, yellowed design document for an early draft of Fallout that was found in a chest guarded by an orc, or something. There was a throw-away reference to a computer that held a conversation with the character, so I wrote one up. The name ZAX was, of course, an homage to VAX, the humanform robot of Wasteland. A close second in favorites was the party . The engine didn't really have for party , and the dev team didn't have much of an incentive to add them (nor did anyone think that it was feasible). I wrote up a script for Ian, THEN I showed it to Tim Cain. Eight million bugs later, we had "functional" party who would shoot you in the back. Fallout Bible, Chris Avellone, Black Isle Studios

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5. What was your least favorite thing, area, or item that you worked on in Fallout? The bugs. Seriously. The worst part about the bugs were the core code bugs. Sometimes there were function calls that didn't work right and crashed the game. If this happened in your script, then you'd get the blame . . . even if it was a function that you hadn't written, had no access to, and couldn't fix. No choice then but to put the programmer in a headlock and force code out of him* like squeezing the juice from a rancid turnip. Oh yeah. There was also this little bit of having one of the characters use the word "Oriental" in reference to another character. Sure, in the modern day and age we enlightened people say "Asian." For some reason though this little bit of PC was forced into the game text as well. Why a character in the game can't be un-PC, or just plain wrong, I don't know. Especially when the game allows you to push drugs on kids until they die, and then blow up their corpses with dynamite. You can't say "Oriental"? WTF? * For those who presume that I am being sexist by assuming the male pronoun in my English, may I point out that there were no female programmers on Fallout 1's team. 6. Any secrets or background stuff that you've been keeping in your noggin that you want to share? If you have a character with a 10 Intelligence, there is a vanishingly small chance to best ZAX in chess. This is a doomed experiment for you, though. It will take you so long to finally win that your Rad-X will have worn off. You'll stand up from the chess game and then keel over dead from megadoses of radiation in the Glow. Some days, I am an evil man. As far as background secrets, I didn't have the chance to put in many easter eggs . . . except, of course, for the obligatory pop culture references that became so common that one was actually worth experience in Fallout 2. Tycho (the party member) was, as his background implies, a desert ranger -- another throwback to Wasteland. Oh yeah. In an earlier version of the Glow, there were two little nearly-hidden things . . . not sure if they made the final cut; I haven't played the game in a while. Behind one of the broken goo-filled suspension tanks was a body of a big-headed alien. Near that was a desk with a note on it. The note had about every third letter taken out, but if you puzzled out what it said, you could figure out that it was an evacuation notice, signed by Dana Scully. 7. Was there anything you created that didn't make it in? See the aforementioned bit about the Glow . . . In conjunction with a couple of the folks in QA, I worked out some ideas for maps and quests based on early design documentation. Fallout's design docs were really constantly evolving, and sometimes a given iteration of the documents would just have a big hole and you'd have to go back to earlier copies to find notes and rough ideas for an area. There were originally going to be two other raider tribes in addition to the Khans -- the Vipers and some other group whose name escapes me. We had this idea worked out for the Vipers being in a cleft in a canyon with some beat-up wagons or motor homes, and a sort of snake-worship-cult thing going on. There was gonna be a quest where you could become an honorary Viper and go through their pit of serpents and gain the Snakeater perk for free. Sadly, we just didn't have time to actually build the map. I also championed long and hard for a different version of the Boneyard, but I was not really a senior staffer, and Leonard Boyarsky had a specific idea in mind that evolved into the final cut. The maps would've been similar but a lot of the story for that area would've been quite different. 8. Any personal stories you want to share from the development process? Well, there was the whole thing about being at least 18 to blow the Master. . .


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The tentacles, you know . . . I learning the virtue of TESTING. I had finally figured out how to set up external variables in the scripts, and I'd managed to weasel the other Jesse (the programmer) into coding them in the engine. As a result we suddenly had the ability to make one item affect another. A bunch of the team had been pounding their heads for literally WEEKS over the problem of just figuring out how to make it so that using the Vault computer terminal on the outside of Vault-13 would cause the Vault door to open, since they were two separate objects. I figured out how to make the external variables link, coded a script, and ran to get Leonard Boyarsky. Foolish me, as I had not copied the script to the override file . . . that is, I wrote all the stuff to make it go, then forgot to put it in the right place. Boy did I look stupid when I said "I've got it!", clicked the button, and the character walked over, fiddled with the door computer, and nothing happened. "Boy was my face red!" as they say in the biz. My other memorable moment was deciding to make the bounty hunter group for the child-killers. We had debated heatedly the merits of having child- killing in the game versus not having child-killing, and I was a proponent of consequence-driven gaming -- if you screw up, you suffer the consequences; if you kill children, then people get so incensed that they hire bounty hunters to come after you. Of course, I lovingly named the lead bounty hunter Avellone in honor of Chris Avellone, the most humorous designer at Interplay. 9. If you had one inventory item from Fallout, what would it be? The POWER FIST! I would smash righteous fury down upon the heads of evildoers and jaywalkers with Minsc-like ferocity! Or, did you mean, is there any particular inventory item that I feel responsible for? In that case, also the power fist. While playing through the game with an Unarmed Combat/Speech character I concluded that you just couldn't dish out the damage to get past enemies in the endgame, even with Unarmed Combat of 200%, More Criticals, Improved Criticals, and a lot of called shots. So, I lobbied for "unarmed combat enhancers," from which we gained the spiked knuckles and the power fist. (Mostly I think it was just because I kept saying "Power Fist" over and over again to Feargus until he finally just caved in and had them put into the game.) 10. What are you doing now? What are your hopes and dreams for the future? These days I reside in Los Angeles and I work for Decipher studios on the Star Trek roleplaying game. We just put out a new core game, thanks to the wacky license changeovers of the last couple years. Current projects include working on some of the backlist sourcebooks like the Star Trek Aliens and Starships books. I nearly smacked into Jolene Blalock (T'Pol on Enterprise) about two weeks ago, which would have been very bad because she is not a large woman by any means and I would have crushed her. I doubt that Paramount would've been happy with me brui their resident Vulcan. I'm hoping to leverage my Star Trek work into writing for the shows and movies. Not only would that be enjoyable, but I could make some REAL money. (And I couldn't possibly do worse than some of the novels already out there.) 11. What question do you wish you had been asked about Fallout that wasn't in this list of questions? "What was it like working with the Fallout team?" (You don't get off that easy, though. If you wanna know the answer, you have to actually ask.) 12. If you had one wish, what would it be? Right now? Since I'm in a Fallout-y mood from this questionnaire, it would be for the completion of Fallout 3, that all the computer gaming world could share in the joy that is more Fallout.


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Or the best sandwich EVER. I have had some really good sandwiches but the best one ever would be really nice right now. 13. Is there anything you've ever wanted to say in an interview that you've never had the chance to say? FIGHT CENSORSHIP! DOWN WITH THE MAN!

ADDITIONAL TRIVIA FROM JESS: JUNKTOWN! And Jess had some additional comments about Junktown.

Junktown was a pretty schizophrenic place because Chris T. had sent over a design doc that had the basic Gizmo/ Killian conflict, but almost everything else was unfinished. I would get some general outlines from him and then fill them in. For instance, "There should be a gang conflict between the bartender and some gang" turned into the whole gang story arc with the bowling trophy and Sherry and whatnot. I scripted in Dogmeat, but it was Chris T. who originally came up with the design idea. Didja know . . . in the original write-up of Junktown, the "ending sequence" was reversed from its current incarnation. That is, in the endgame slideshow, if the player had favored Killian, the original write-up was something like "With Gizmo out of the way, Killian enforces his brand of frontier justice on Junktown. The city remains orderly but small, as travelers steer away from his rigid sensibilities," and the picture background behind Killian was a gallows with shadows of dead men hanging from it. If the player favored Gizmo, it was "Under Gizmo's leadership, Junktown becomes a trading center and resort, where people come from miles around to gamble, spend money and enjoy themselves in relative safety. Gizmo keeps the town prosperous but healthy, as he has no desire to injure his own affluence. The inhabitants of the town become wealthy and famous," with the background picture showing Junktown as a Reno-like casino with electricity and clean streets free of any drug dealers or riff-raff who might endanger Gizmo's operations. Marketing decided at the last minute that we had to "reward good and punish bad," though, so the sequence was changed to its current incarnation.

ADDITIONAL TRIVIA FROM JESS: PATRICK THE CELT! And Jess had even more comments about Patrick the Celt from Fallout 1:

Seems kinda out of place, doesn't he? He's the descendant of an Americanized Celtic family who has a strong vibe to keep his "ethnic heritage" alive. To do so he maintains lineages of Celtic music, food, clothing -- you name it. Never mind that who knows if England still exists at all . . . among other things, he's a storyteller and a collector of history. While telling tales of the rest of the world was really outside the scope of the game (and it would've been really boring for the player to wade through pages of history-through-a-Celtic-lens), his expertise meant that he could rub off a little on the character in matters of jokes, tale-telling and singing -- the sorts of things that help with Charisma.

TYCHO

Jess also talked a bit about Tycho from Fallout 1:

Tycho's a nod to the desert rangers of Wasteland. Obviously that "history" didn't wind up in Fallout, so that makes it more of an homage than anything.


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Originally, the idea is that he came from east of California, in the Nevada area. His family comes from people who survived the devastation when WAR happened, likely living among the badlands of Nevada. As I envisaged it, Tycho learned a lot about desert survival and whatnot from his small community, which kept a strong survivalist contingent -- so they still had some small arms and books. They probably had something like the cliff-dwelling Indians going on for their town, though I never fleshed it out. Anyway, Tycho took off to wandering the desert with traders and explorers for several years, returning from time to time with goods or maps. Most likely he started with small trips and went further abroad as he became more experienced. He went as far as the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and then headed back west. Eventually he wound up on the west coast as a long-range explorer from a loose group of desert rangers whose actual origins, scope and purpose weren't defined. In some ways Tycho is reminiscent of master Yuta from "Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds." He carries a gas mask just in case, wears hardened leather armor, has a knife, knuckles, canteen, all the usual survival gear. I'd pictured him as this guy in leather armor (Fallout-style) with a gas mask hanging around his neck, goggles (to keep out sand and glare), a sand-colored cloak usable for camouflage and to keep the sun off, and a double- barreled shotgun.


I already covered this in previous posts - thanks to "Redd."

THE END

In any event, that’s it for update nein. If you have any questions, see anything wrong, see anything you take exception to, feel free to email me at the address at the beginning of this update - or post it on the message boards. Keep your head down, Chris Avellone @ BIS Note that "Keep your head down" does not apply to anyone I despise. Keep your heads UP, you slack bastards.


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©2002 CHRIS AVELLONE, BLACK ISLE STUDIOS, COMPILED BY GOG.COM

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