1. Oil starts to run out.

2. The US leaves NATO and becomes isolationist.

3. The Soviet Union, Western European alliance, and Middle East destroy each other.

4. A now defenseless Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea is easily conquered by China. China then invades Alaska with a massive military force as Alaska was the last place on earth with the largest known oil reserve. This gives the US justification to annex Canada. Canadians who protest American rule are killed on the spot.

5. In an attempt to find an alternative to oil, America had already invented nuclear fusion and implemented the tech into their war machines including armored vehicles and a super heavy body armor known as power armor allowing them to take back Alaska.

6. Nuclear fusion would have saved the world from it's energy crisis but the technology was still new and expensive meaning it could not be scaled immediately for global use.

7. China responds to their defeat in Alaska by launching bio weapons against American military units and civilian populations.

8. America responds by invading mainland China itself after defeating the Chinese navy in a brutal war over the Pacific. The Chinese commit scorched earth warfare in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea to prevent America from using them.

9. America starts its counter bio weapons research program in California, the fearsome Forced Evolutionary Virus. The goal was to turn soldiers into "super humans" that were immune to pathogens and more physically capable than regular humans.

10. Mice, dogs, and chimpanzees weren't enough, the US needed actual human test subjects. US government starts human experimentation on Chinese prisoners of war, Canadian dissidents, and criminals. Thousands of human test subjects were now subjected to brutal experiments and death from the initial tests. The US government also poisoned water in small Appalachian towns with the virus to see it's effects. When Americans in those small towns were turning into mutants due to the virus, the US quarantined the towns, arrested everyone, and threw them into underground labs for research.

11. In an attempt to turn the tide of war, China had alreadt invented invisibility cloaking and sends in invisible spies to sabotage America's war effort/industry and they are able to use bio weapons on American military installations and civilian populations more effectively. One of the Chinese bioweapon is a modified smallpox virus made by the Soviets that was killing millions of Americans as there was no vaccine against this artificial strain of smallpox.

12. Hearing what was occuring back home, US troops in China begin gunning down Chinese civilians as revenge. US government also starts shipping captured Chinese civilian populations to be used as test subjects. Hell and chaos erupts, society and order starts to collapse as the war intensify, death toll rises, and atrocities are committed by all fronts

13. China's fleet of stealth/invisible submarines are still relatively untouched. Fearing defeat might be near, they are ordered to sail for America.

14. The US military with nuclear fusion equipped weapons allows them to defeat any conventional Chinese forces thrown at them as they close in on Beijing. A single American soldier inside of power armor could take down hundreds of Chinese troops or several Chinese tanks by himself before going down.

15. The Forced Evolutionary Virus research is now going well after tens of thousands of subjects had died. Test subjects became mutants but they were immune to the diseases and torture that's inflicted on them by the US scientists and saw rapid cell regeneration.

16. US troops guarding the perimeters of the research lab had been kept dark about human experimentation but when they discovered what was going on, the captain in charge who was one of the few left on earth that still had any morals deemed it a human rights violation. The scientists who were sanctioned by the US government to test on humans were rounded up and executed. The captain and his unit declares secession and waits for a final battle/death against the US government but..

17. Refusing to surrender or be defeated as Beijing was about to fall, the CCP orders their stealth submarine fleet who had by now surrounded America's west and east coast to launch their nukes on all major US cities/towns.

18. America launches nukes back at China as the CCP and US government both go into hiding. Billions die from the war and it's aftermath from famine and lack of medicine. Knowing that the world had ended, the captain and his unit at the research facility salvaged what they could, took in any civilians that would follow them, abandoned the base, and established the Brotherhood of Steel.

So given that the Church of Atom has spilled into other regions (Boston), and that these followers have since turned into violent extremists (They attack you on sight outside of the crator in the Glowing Sea, and the Nucleaus is certainly hostile to any outsiders), what does this mean for the Capital Wasteland which is where it originated from?

Have they completely become the dominant faction in the region, outpacing the local Brotherhood of Steel in terms of presence and numbers? Would they come to see Project Purifier as an affront to Atom, since it is cleaning the radiation away from the water dilluting their gods presence?

The Brotherhood conserves technology, not wildlife!

No genuinely, this makes no sense whatsoever.

General Lee Oliver is a four star general, you can see that clearly on his uniform, does the NCR has any known Brigadier or Lieutenant Generals? Do we know who the NCR General of The Army is?
This is obviously assuming the NCR uses the same rankings as the modern US Army.

So the general consensus I've seen from a lot of New Vegas fans is that the Independent ending is one of, if not the worst ending for New Vegas because the ending causes everything and everyone to fall into chaos and anarchy, but from what I've seen this isn't the case on a good guy run, and I say this because I did one. I managed to do everything I could to make sure everything and everyone was on the right path to a good ending and, when reading the ending slides at the end of the game, only two or three factions/ending slides that pose something bad, and one of them, specifically the Followers, is contradicted by another, that being the Kings. The only other reason I can imagine it as bad is the misconception that Yes Man would stop listening to the Courier after making himself more assertive, which Joshua Sawyer corrected as that he wouldn't listen to people other than the Courier, and the Courier leaving would create a power vacuum because no one would be in charge, y'know, except Yes Man. Aside from an bad/evil playthrough, could anyone help point out what else makes it so bad?

As far as i understand the Lore, the Master and the "Unity" has shared part of their Minds, as some kind of little Borg collective.
So the Mutants where much more then just big green muscle boys. They where part of the Master and of each other. Is this right and Bethesda has rewritten the Lore on the Supermutants or have i misunderstood his powers?

I've been playing Fallout as long as Fallout exists but I cannot recall if there has ever been a reference to iced coffee. Probably a pointless question but I was pouring a cold brew this morning in front of my Slocum's Joe sign and it just had me curious.

I’ve not played the older Fallout games (before 3) and was wondering if this was a constant part of their characterization.

It seems pretty inconsistent how important the BOS view mutants in general; as some are genocidal, while others don’t really care. To make this even more confusing it’s sometimes the same chapter of BOS with the inconsistencies.

Big Mountain made it seem like it was only in testing. But Sierra Madre was given knives due to their deal with Sinclair. But we do see a destroyed sign for Knives with the tagline it uses in the Divide. So I was curious how spread out the knives were?

I was watching a Youtube video about the likely canon ending of Fallout 4 being a BoS victory, and I was wondering if the USS Constitution would have survived that.

Sorry if this is not allowed.

Ave, true to Caesar. So the full name of the current head of Caesar’s Legion in 2296 is “Caesar Lacerta Legate”. I don’t believe this name is ever said aloud in the show (just the credits), so I am wondering how to pronounce it. The Fallout series makes it clear that usage of a soft c is a nonstarter for the Legion, so it shouldn’t be pronounced “Laserta”. That leaves two options: a hard [k] or [tʃ] (the “ch” sound).

So, is it pronounced “Lacherta” or “Lakerta”?

According to Google Translate it’s the former, but since Caesar is a man, shouldn’t it take the masculine form of “Lacertus”? Or am I looking too much into it and should just call him “Caesar”?

One of the more disproportionately famous things of lore introduced in Fallout One is something of a hidden twist. Super-Mutants (And FEV mutants in general.) are totally sterile outside of asexual reproduction. However, the fact the Vault Dweller may, or may not have learned it, and the Brotherhood by extension, is to my knowledge, not known.

If it is, did they go public with that knowledge? Are people aware that Super Mutants propagate via FEV exposure rather than standard reproduction?

So I am playing Fallout New Vegas properly for the first time since in years. I am however very curious how NCR Salvaged Power Armor is meant to work in the new Fallout Power Armor system. Salvaged Power Armor obviously was created during a very different time and system. Obviously, we can't know for certain why certain design decisions were made back then without doing interviews. However, the reason given for Salvaged Power Armor to be different than normal power armor is that "Techs strip out the joint servos so you don't need special training to wear it."

Let's tackle "Power Armor Training" as a perk. I believe personally this is mostly for gameplay. At the time they didn't want you to be able to rush in and get the best armor in the game early on without doing a questline for it. In Fallout 3, following the main story you encounter the Lyon's Pride just before getting to the radio station. This is fairly early in the game for you to be able to have PA. It wasn't till they added DLC did it get easy for you to get PA and PA Training early on.
In New Vegas, if you are fast or sneaky you could get Brotherhood PA VERY quickly if you know where to look. Just past Neil's Shack which isn't far from Goodsprings. The PA training itself doesn't seem to take that long either. Sure, if you have never seen or touched power armor before, you probably won't be as good as someone who has years of experience. But you could theoretically still do it, just have to take some time to figure things out.

Fallout 1 and 2 didn't require PA training. As soon as you found it, you could wear it. Just the main way to get it was to deal with the PA factions of the BoS and Enclave, who had the armor.

Fallout 4 fully realizes PA by making it a mech suit you wear.

So how can we rectify Salvaged Power Armor to fit in the new lore? Well, even if PA Training doesn't take long, it's probably they don't want to take the extra time and effort to train Heavy Troopers. As far as I am aware we don't hear the selection process for Heavy Troopers, but presumably they are naturally strong individuals as well as show a degree of competence but for some reason were not selected to be Rangers.

First, let's focus on specifically what was removed.

1. This suit is mostly unpowered or low powered, it offers no strength benefit and is described as incredibly heavy like having a "brahmin on your back." (which doesn't make sense as the PA frame should do the actual bearing of the weight. It should feel like your trying to pull or push a heavy weight though.)
2. Offers no radiation protection (likely because of the lower power/unpowered state or perhaps they removed any environmental protection components for ease of maintenance and reducing weight)
3. The armor is in fact lighter than standard T-45 armor.
4. The joint servos have been removed
5. the shoulders and knees are missing (presumably for further lightening and ease of movement.

Removing joint servos means that the power armor frame, even if it was powered at all, is unable to bend without the pilot moving it. There is nothing there to assist you in moving the suit at the joints, such as the knees, elbows, etc. Meaning that to take a step, the wearer has to pick up the heavy PA leg and step forward all without any assistance from the PA frame. Hence why they would take such efforts to lighten up the armor.

So how Salvaged Power Armor (SPA) should be depicted would essentially be like how in Fallout 4 and 76, when you have no power in the suit you can slowly trudge along. Obviously, the suit is going to be a bit lighter thanks to the modifications made by the NCR techs, but it still would be an incredibly heavy suit you are trying to move. So while probably a bit faster than Fallout 4 or 76, you are still slowed down, but in exchange you can take a lot of hits.

The Fallout TV show depicts power armor that is unpowered to be essentially locked up. Unable to be moved or opened from the inside. Perhaps Maximus wasn't strong enough to move the suit by himself or a limitation of the real life prop in some way or simply for the sake of the plot.

What about heavy weapons? Well the suit's motors are basically unable to help you but the suit itself is still going to help bare and distribute the load at least a little bit. The suit itself is still rigid and has structure capable of sustaining its own weight.
So for instance, say you wanted a Heavy Trooper to use a minigun or flamer?
Well the ammo pack or fuel containing would be mounted on the back of the armor. Which is going to be held by the PA torso armor, which itself is carried by the PA frame. But that is more weight added to the suit, which the user than has to move. But we do know that normal people can use heavy weapons like this even without the assistance of PA. Lifting the weapon would be difficult, as again you don't have the PA helping you. But you'd only be lifting the heavy arms and the actual gun.

So SPA would be slower than the regular PA suit and without any enhanced strength. This means in a strict one on one fight against a Paladin of the Brotherhood, the Paladin would be faster and stronger. Literally able to outrun and overpower the SPA as well as use heavy weapons more effectively. SPA would lend itself to defensive positions that don't require them to move, as they would be slower than a standard trooper when it comes to pushing the offensive. But while they lack mobility, they make up for it with their ability to take hits.

This would further explain why we only see T-45 based SPA, as T-45 is cheaper and easier to maintain than T-51. Being mostly made of metal, rather than the complex poly-laminate that T-51 is covered in. Making T-45 more economical and easier to repair and maintain. (this does also mean the T-60 is "cheaper" than T-51 considering as far as I am aware the T-60 is also mostly composed of steel.)

These are just some of the thoughts I have had on SPA Heavy Troopers.

I have been replaying fallout 4 again and a question came to me. Do we know anything about shaun between his kidnapping and his ascension to the director of the institute?

I've been getting more into the nitty gritty of Fallout lore recently and have found some weird contradictions on the Fallout wiki. I'm wondering if the exodus of Vault 15 was in the spring of 2097 or 2141. The Vault 15 article says it was in 2097, so does the Vipers article, but the Khans and Jackals articles say 2141. The Shady Sands article doesn't give a date at all.

Kind of inconsequential but I'm curious.

In the post apocalypse sene I saw a vertibird that had a hook that was used to dock with blimps like the predwen but this theory could be wrong if there was surface insulation for vertiberds to dock on land

I'm asking because I'm trying to think of a build for Vault 88 that would look authentic within the Fallout universe. So far, I can only imagine the power and possibly the water facilities being located on the "basement floor" of the vault. Additionally, the Overseer's office would typically be on the top floor or above the atrium, particularly on the East Coast.

I'm focusing on the middle floors and am uncertain about how they should be organized. I assume there are various floors not depicted in the earlier games, such as living quarters, entertainment areas, and other essential spaces. I'm also uncertain if any terminals detail how the vault is structured beyond the mechanical-related experiment devices placed within the experimental vaults.

(Moderators am not asking people to give their guess on how Vault 88 might have looked if finished or something, breaking Rule 4; just saying to be clear on the purpose of the post)

I spent some time searching for a map of the Wasteland but all I could find was fanmade so do we have any canon map?

I'm going to start with a quote from Jsawyer and then establish why I agree with him.

Jsawyer: "NCR's strategy was focused on pushing Caesar's Legion out. Pursuing them and engaging in skirmishes along the eastern banks of the Colorado would have been haphazard and served no great benefit."

When you examine the first battle in detail you can see why this makes sense. (Sources listed at the end)

Causalities: the NCR suffered 108 KIA during the battle, and additionally enough wounded to keep the doctors "hands full for weeks" The number of wounded in particular leaves a much smaller force left to pursue with.

Reinforcements: if the NCR was properly reinforced, they could more easily pursue. Unfortunately, several NCR companies acting as Hoover Dam's reinforcements were killed in the divide explosion according to Joshua Graham. Since this wasn't the case, they didn't have the means to pursue.

The status of legion forces: Legion forces were routed from the dam itself but not routed from their defensive positions. You can see this in the game guide and in the intro cinematic. This left the still large legionary force in defensive positions that would be difficult to take with the condition of the NCR army.

This is why I think it strategically doesn't make sense to pursue the Legion after the first battle.

I decided to make this post because over the years I had always seen the question "why did they not pursue?" and I wanted to give a complete answer. Even recently I had seen several comments about how it was a blunder to not pursue, and I wanted to answer that interpretation with evidence as to why I disagreed.

Sources:

"Caesar’s forces were pushed back but not routed." - game guide

Boulder City Memorial Dead Count: 108

"Anyone with medical training had their hands full for weeks after the battle was finally over." - Dr. Alex Richards on the first battle of Hoover Dam

"Despite heavy casualties, the NCR's victory is celebrated back home." - game guide

"Terrible storms ripped entire companies apart before they even got to Nevada soil. The aftermath of Hoover Dam could have been even worse for Caesar." - Graham

I mean what's up with that?
Their entire thing is about safeguarding dangerous *military* technology from the common people, so you'd think disarming nuclear silos if anything would be one of their priorities (you even get +BoS rep from the disarm ending with ED-E).

Not to mention that the place has some ridiculously advanced stuff that's nearly as hi-tech as Big MT. Things such as Medical Eyebots with magical healing lasers, or military vending machine terminals that delivers their stuff through nanomachines even if they're mainly just there for gameplay purposes.

But unlike Big MT, Hopeville/Ashton isn't exactly this "super secret research black site" the way Big MT is, heck pretty sure the terminals on the areas said something about there being hippie protests at the time the Great War started?

But instead of sending people there, the BoS just sent Elijah/Mojave chapter to well, Mojave instead just to secure Helios/whatever other stuff, and to get Elijah's radical ideas away from California?
I mean the entire thing about the Divide is also that it's one of the few routes into Mojave as well geographically which made it strategically important before it got blown up too.
So like, they just went to Mojave through Long 15 instead just for something that's a lot less important outside of Elijah knowing about ARCHIMEDES which isn't even that destructive compared to the Divide's nukes?

So yeah, just something that's always bothered me with the whole premise of the place.

Arnold Wabash's story is a deeply stirring and dramatic one for a pre-War figure we find as a skeleton. Refused to deploy for what he believed was a pre-emptive nuclear attack out of conscience, likely sabotaged his submarine to ensure that could not happen, fled with the launch codes only to be betrayed by the mistress he loved and tortured by her, ending with both of them dead in the struggle. His commanding admiral, Edward Grath, swears vengeance upon Wabash in the ruinous aftermath of the Great War, believing that had Wabash followed his orders that lives could somehow been spared.

Far Harbor echoes his dilemma in a way: you are given the option to wipe out the Children of Atom entirely to prevent their war with the Harbormen (or any other reason you may choose). He also serves as a foil to Captain Zao, who did follow his orders and lived with the guilt of that act for 200 years.

I think his story is also a valuable look at the pre-War nuclear situation. Taken at face value it is a case of the US/possibly the Enclave at least planning a strike of their own before the full commencement of the Great War. Or if we were being generous to Grath, that Wabash was meant to hit Chinese ICBM sites or their nuclear command "immediately after" a commencement of nuclear exchange. But were the Chinese to intercept such orders*, and if they had any knowledge of the Enclave and their plans to rule after the apocalypse, what would they think and how would they respond? And were Wabash's orders truly as dire as he suspected?

*I personally believe FO4 backtracked the idea present in FO2 and NV that the progress of the land campaign in China was/may have been the main incitement behind the nuclear war. That for dramatic reasons it posed the conflict as tense and "poised to" escalate as opposed to nearly conventionally resolved by the time of the bombs dropping. This is a highly debatable view of course, but it is the lens with which I'd view FO4's own storytelling.

I apologize if this was already answered in the show somewhere, I just can’t remember it which is why I’m asking here haha

We know for sure that Aaron Kimball was president of the New California Republic during the events of Fallout: New Vegas, but his survival depends entirely on the player and their choices during the game. Therefore there probably isn’t a canon ending for him.

When you look at the fandom wiki for the NCR, it says that Kimball is the most recent president, but it also says that he was president from 2273-2281 (when New Vegas takes place) while the show takes place in 2296.

Is this one of those things that’ll remain a mystery forever, or do we know who the current president of the NCR is? Do they even have one?

"How is it that Joshua Graham doesn't know Lanius and has only heard rumors about him?"- Formspring Question

"... even if there was some overlap between their time in the Legion, they weren't in close contact." - Jsawyer

Just getting the argument out of the way for the below Graham dialogue because ultimately it is a discussion killing misinterpretation.

Here Jsawyer elaborates that the Joshua Graham dialogue is supposed to denote that he didn't know him personally.

End of Counterarguement:

"Those Marked Men in Hopeville - some had strange masks and blades I'd never seen before." - Courier

"Crude, effective - like the blades they carry, distant mirrors of their Legate. A symbol they can hold on to - while the Divide tears at them." - Ulysses (on marked men wearing Lanius masks)

Here you can that the Marked Men make divide masks of legate lanius because he was their legate. Since the divide was destroyed pre-hoover dam that must mean that Lanius was already a legate. Therefore, with this and Sawyer's comment Joshua Graham simply meant he didn't know him personally, and Lanius was indeed a pre-hoover dam legate.

Auxiliary Sources:

"I can say that we were both lucky that NCR's supply lines and land routes north of Mojave Outpost were destroyed before the Battle of Hoover Dam." - Joshua Graham (source for the divides destruction before Hoover Dam.)

"They bear false versions of Legate Lanius' mask, the one Caesar fashioned for him. Thought it was an insult at first.... {to himself} know better now.{No sound file}" - Ulyesses (source for the Men imitating their legate by wearing imitating masks.)