As I read it, the vault was not [publicly] open. Even today (2 years later), I am not exactly sure how it is that the residents accepted James...

Old Doc died. Andy the Handy was next choice.

I'd have accepted James too.

But the point is that you live your life in a locked down institution and suddenly some stranger that no one has seen before pops into being... This is the same as if a ship's medical officer on a sub somewhere under the Pacific suddenly gets replaced by someone that did not board the sub when it submerged.

nah, if you read the Overseers computer, they talk about scouts visiting Megaton etc. It must have been publically open at the time, or else how would James and the BOS know about it, and get in? Infact, I think it was James that talked the (slightly paranoid) Overseer into sealing it up. He probably filled the Overseers head with so many horror stories that the old guy would rather shoot his residents than open it up again. Which caused some problems later on.. :facepalm:

No... That's just the point. Vault 101 was never to open. The Overseer sent covert scouts. Even if one came back with a jacket... it could never be worn, because it could never be explained.

It's not the same thing at all. The Vault does have a door, it does work and everyone knows it. They just prefer not to use it. If someone with the kinds of skills that James had suddenly showed up at their doorstep, you can bet money that they would let him in. Obviously he and Jonas are the only ones there with any sort of medical knowledge, and Jonas came with James into the Vault. So if it weren't for them, Vault 101 would have had no one to tend to the medical needs of the residents. Now why they didn't train someone to take over that role is another story.

Future food is synthetic and packed with preservatives. It would last forever. The biggest question is why you can go into a shop and actually find any!

I read on the fallout wiki

Does leaving the vault contradict what Bethesda had Perlman state in the opening title? Was not Vault 101 a control, that was never to open?

How about this then...

Vault 101 was not "never to open". It's purpose was an Overseer with absolute control.

It's specifically stated in the game that every one of the advlts knew that the vault used to be open, but that twenty years ago they agreed to seal it up and pretend it had never been opened.

I never understood you realists. Seriously, It's a game set in the future, whose culture can't shake the fiftys. They focused on technology rather then music. Since no new music has come out since the split.

Just close your eyes and think of a roast dinner... It will be fine... :cake:

Synthetic leather?

I'd say its a mix between a lot of raidiation and preservatives...

The Fallout equivalent of 'A wizard did it': Radiation did it.

This thread amazes me! Try this on for size...it's science fiction. The operative word here is fiction. By today's standards, the food should be inedible. But this is fiction, so all "standards" are out the window. There are a plethora of explanations in this thread, and everyone one of them is viable because...you guessed it...it's fiction. When I read science fiction, or watch sci-fi movies, or play computer games set in a fictional world, I just let the fictional world roll over me and go with the flow. So the pork-n-beans from rusty cans, or cardboard packaged salisbury steaks, or mirelurk cakes for that matter...they all taste GRRRRRRRRRREAT!

Easy to accept perserved food if you're also willing to acknowledge natural gas leaks and fire hydrants (and toilets, water fountains, sinks) still active after 200 years

QUOTE: As I read it, the vault was not [publicly] open. Even today (2 years later), I am not exactly sure how it is that the residents accepted James...

QUOTE: Does leaving the vault contradict what Bethesda had Perlman state in the opening title? Was not Vault 101 a control, that was never to open?


Remember that in a lot of cases, things did not happen the way Vaultec envisioned. People change, societies evolve. In 1789, the American constitution was written with the intent of a small federal government that only enforced a few laws, and allowed the states to see to their own affairs. But by 1989, the federal government had its collective nose stuck in nearly everything.

Vault 101 might have been intended to remain closed forever. But, who's to say that 100 or 120 or 150 years later, the people didn't say "screw this" and open it up. Then, Overseer Almodovar took over, and closed it again.

http://lordbost.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/1235421655368.jpg?w=450&h=360

Fallout is set in a post nuclear war setting, so you wanted ruins and destruction, however not to much ruins, in reality Washington DC would be knocked totally flat, the ruins outside the city centre however look pretty realistic. They wanted ruins inside the city to make it better, no issue with it, just make the big nuke miss its target or fail to go off.

However the 200 years would not leave much left even less at lots of buildings has been damaged. First you would get lots of forest who would grow up and do a lot of damage, rain and storm would damage even more. Even without forest and rain, assume the area become very dry you would get far more breakdown, all wood and most metal would disappear.
Now add people and animals searching the ruins for 200 years.

Like it’s now it looks like you came out a couple of month after the bombs fell. And it’s give the correct post apocalyptic feeling.
The landscape in Oblivion would actually be more realistic, new towns have grown up, and they don’t use scavenged planes as buildings, or live in aircraft carriers but might use part of them. Landscape would mostly be forest with some ruins, bunkers and subway tunnels, all except a few would be cleared out and have new users. It would however not feel right.

Well, I expect aircraft carriers would likely still be around, because of their sheer impregnability. Though planes would have rusted away, for the most part, unless they were properly manitained.

However, it's possible that the war caused some sort of climatological shift, turning the DC area into a rainless desert. If that were the case, rust would not be an issue, and scrap metal would remain perfectly usable.

Aircraft carriers would last a very long time, albeit that it would not be able to move. That's why it's very rusty and fallen apart on the bow, because of the time between the war and Rivet City's founding.

The planes itself would have rusted mostly but would still be intact...of course unable to fly though. It's just a matter of hauling those parts to Megaton. You know the huge crater in Megaton? Yeah...it's a good catalyst for a new city as it provided shelter and easier construction(just make the crater the center of the town).

Here's a probable course of events after a nuclear war of that magnitude.

After a couple days the bombs dropped, the fires would have been snuffed out and a great depression would be on the Earth. Meaning radioactive rain and other meteorological weathers would be dropping lots of radiation on the Earth(Fallout)and would kill off many species of animals and plants, not to mention the sheer power of the nuclear bombs would trigger massive continental shifts, meaning mountains would become hills and flat areas and flat plains would become giant mountains. Now that there's the depression, the smog from the fires would blanket the Earth for a couple decades and create nuclear winter. Many more would die form the climate shift.

Then now that the nuclear winter had settled, the smog that blanketed the Earth had cleared. With all that smog and sulfur/carbon, the ozone would have severely weakened, creating a global warming effect, making the D.C area become a desert. Not to mention the lack of plants would remove much of the fertility of the environment. Of course D.C would be very much unaffected because of the natural shades the tall buildings provide on the city, making the ruins be very much alive.

But then again...judging from the Glowing One in the Presidential bunker, the white house completely destroyed, and the background radiation in the area...I'd have to say that the White House was the site of a single nuclear bomb dropping...which should have eradicated much of the Capitol Building and left a huge gaping hole in one side.

Nuclear weapons may be powerful, but they're not that powerful. Tectonic plates are absolutely massive things, there's only 7 or 8 of them covering the entire earth, and a bunch of bombs aren't going to have much of an effect on them, if at all. Maybe if you dropped a bunch of bombs along the San Andreas Fault, or some other weak point, you might be able to trigger an earthquake or two, but there certainly won't be mountains rising up from plains as you seem to think.

It's probably been said before, but it's a game, not a sim.

Once when I was in my army days, I opened a ration pack and found that the date on the canned meat component was October 1944. Forty years later, I was eating the same crud that my grandfather ate. Needless to say, I didn't eat it, but traded it with one of our attached foreign troops who didn't read english too well...he didn't get ill, so I guess the stuff was okay.

Sorry, I misspoke. By continental change, I mean not changing the plates to a point but yes, huge amounts of volcanoes and Earthquakes would be created. And Fallout isn't like 20 nukes(probably the amount of 21st century nukes needed to affect the world) but hundreds bombed in one large area repeatedly. As demonstrated since at least two were dropped in the D.C area(White House and Megaton). But according to Fallout geography, the mountains would be created.

Even though in reality, there would be massive geographical change. Heck, if it was hit right, Japan would be underwater and so would lots of China(Global warming is a *****).