Androids what is your take on them? They were introduced into Fallout through Fallout 3. The only known location of them is the Institute which is located in the Commonwealth commonly believed to be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Now some people are confused by Commonwealth. In the Fallout Universe the 50 states were reorganized into 13 http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/United_States#The_American_Commonwealths The State of Massachusetts was put into the “New England Commonwealth.” Then there is the real life use of Commonwealth. Massachusetts is a commonwealth and so are a number of other states. So there aren’t 13 institutes out there.

Technology took a different path then our own sometime during or just after the 1950s. Our technology that was invented after the 1950s does not exist in the Fallout Universe as it does in our own.

This doesn’t rule out that tech didn’t advance in the bubble that is The Institute. But they wouldn’t have created our version of microchips they would have just refined the pre-war technology; the closest thing to a microchip in Fallout would be something like thehttp://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110303185648/fallout/images/7/72/Fo1_Intro_Water_chip_OR.png

Now my problem isn’t the idea of androids. My problem is that the androids are so advanced, so human that they bleed, shave, have body odor, eat drink and go to the bathroom. What the hell is the point in that? Why make such advanced tech only to enslave it?

I have had debates were it boils down to “because they can” and that is a good enough explanation as any when you think about it. Someone wants to make a machine so human they become obsessed with it till a machine like http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Harkness is created. The android gaining free will isn’t a part of the Institutes goal but it is happening.

Really the whole thing seems to be nothing but a giant http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/ reference and my worry is Fallout 4 could possibly be “Fallout 4 Blade Runner” if it is to be set in Boston.

Anyways Androids in Fallout: Do you love the idea? Hate the Idea? What are your thoughts.

In terms of more robotic androids like you would stereotypically think of then i'd have to agree and say they are too advanced, but maybe some sort of mental android?

I'll explain as far as we know our conscious is a set of neurological impulses that instigate everything what if these things could be programmed and turn people into some sort of mental android?

I'm not really suggesting this for fallout but I don't think android like entities are a bad thing it's just making them explainable in the universe unlike harkness.

I can't say I'm really thrilled with the idea of them but depending on how it's handled I'd have to cautiously say it's too early for me to condemn an entire story arc that hasn't happened yet.

I wouldn't say they're too advanced for Fallout because every one of the games except F1 (that I can remember at least) has some sudden example of technological superiority that you never saw coming. F2 had the Enclave, F3 had Harkness and J.H.E, Tactics had the robot army, New Vegas had the Securitron upgrades, and the entire series had the G.E.C.K. I always found the terraforming Eden in a Briefcase device to be the most far fetched element, but I like it because it's still Fallout-y, same with all the other things.

I'd vote "cautiously indifferent."

I like them and the idea of the Institute. I hope Beth expands on them in FO4.

Tehcnically speaking, there are androids in Fallout already.

They're called Protectrons.

From Webster's dictionary:

Android: a mobile robot usually with a human form.

Wellp... Protectrons have two arms, two legs, and a head, so it fits.

What? Not human enough? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P6rFc4CHKxE/UV4-rE6IetI/AAAAAAAAEiU/aCeVrvuSKLI/s1600/The+Machine+Man+--+Metropolis.jpg http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1032054819993_2002/09/17/18scol3cpo.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TLhYHt6WJfw/S9HkAYJd7JI/AAAAAAAAOHU/EJFvBKuzhXg/s400/twiki2.jpg http://legendscrazy.net/otherstuff/bsg/031_tru_razor_gold_commander.jpg http://fusionanomaly.net/robotsofdawn.jpg http://www.thegreenhead.com/imgs/xl/lifesize-terminator-t-800-endoskeleton-xl.jpg http://www.jeffbots.com/gort.jpg http://www.animationartist.com/movies/irongiant/Artists/Voice_Artists/Robot.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Marvin_the_Paranoid_Android_costume.jpg

I dont really care about androids one way or the either.

At the same time, I dont find them implausible with the Fallout setting, given how we already have examples of hand-held, high energy, laser/plasma weapons, a briefcase that can transform the world, and nuclear fission generators that fit in a person's palm, each of which laugh in the face of modern technological miniaturization

Androids like your examples I would actually be ok with.

I would argue that protectrons aren't androids because they don't have self awareness and the ability to act on their own. Which is what I think of when I think about androids. A robot that has the ability to think and do things on its own. Which would make it different then just normal robots doing what it is programmed to do.

As they are they are too advanced, so no.

'd prefer if they were like Cyber men from doctor who.

No "Because they dream of electric sheep" option? Pfft.

That doesn't really account for the full definition of an android:

I get what you are trying to say, but androids are traditionally thought of in science fiction as being more than just robots that look a bit like humans. Usually, they are how they are presented in Fallout 3, not just robots but synthetic humans. Ones with flesh and such, like the terminators in the Terminator movies.

I personally think androids look too advanced for Fallout. Most everything else, while advanced, looks like it fits in. Androids just seem out of place completely. They just don't seem right at all.

No, Because they are too advanced for the tech presented.

Androids are fine but dont make them a dime a dozen. Meeting/Interacting with an Android should be a rare thing (they should be hard to create) like Fallout 3.

Hmm...

Just thought of something.

What if... the androids at the Commonwealth are basically co-opted humans? Take a human, stick a bunch of wires into 'em, remove the brain, stick in a posotronic version, and done. Explains a few things about Harkness (and how the LW can have Commonwealth tech stuck into him/her.) And it should be within the tech level that's presented in Fallout- you can take something's brain out and make it a Robobrain, so why can't you do something similar to a fleshy body?

Those wouldn't be androids then, those would be cyborgs.

True. But it wouldn't be the first time fiction used the wrong term for something.

Completely blown out of proportions. It's a tiny side quest and not a giant reference in FO3.

Androids are very boring in my eyes as I already stated in the speculation thread. You need excellent writers and art directors to make them interesting. In Fallout 3 I liked the hints that where spread and could be discovered in the wastes (a interesting way to start a sidequest, not only talk, talk, talk) but the quest itself... not my case already told to often so no element of surprise here.

I adore Phillip K. dike and found Ridley Scotts version horrible because he didn't understood many main points of the original story. The only other writer that could handle them well was Asimov don't bring me to say anything about Spielbergs AI I could get very aggressive . Only that much Spielberg leave Stanley Kubricks work alone you aren't talented enough to get near his class and there is a reason why these movies where unfinished.

So what does this all mean for FO4. If Androids are a main theme it will be very hard to please me with this game. Not because of lore... the miniaturized Vacuum Tube is invented in the meantime by the hardcoe fan community SCIENCE! . More because of story reasons. As side quest no big deal but please no main theme.

Too advanced, and I fear for FO Blade Runner with some stupid plot twist, because for some reason game devs can't resist plot twists.

JHE: a ZAX. Saw that coming a mile away, and computer boss done before, Calculator.

It would not surprise me if a twist revolved around who android, who human, and maybe they would even do something really lame like bring up some past character or characters who were actually androids. Meh.

Also, someone brought up Enclave and tech. Enclave improved upon existing pre-war Tech. Androids are something just..wayyy out there.

Androids are just too advanced for Fallout, I'd rather have new models of robots than synthetic humans. I also have a strong fear of Fallout Blade Runner. They've already taken Easter eggs too far *Mothership Zeta*, who's to say they won't do it again?

I've often thought that the Commonwealth might simply be using mind-controlled humans. Sort of like what you are suggesting here.

They are just calling them "androids" to save face. However, the issue is with Pinkerton, the surgeon in Rivet City. He mentions something about the inner parts of the face being "so advanced".

Which is why I'm calling them co-opted humans.

Keep the exterior the same, reinforce and put tech into the insides. And Pinkerton only changed Harkness' face and memory- it's not too much of a strech that they reinforced his skull and, like I said, insterted a positronic brain. Pinkerton, expecting to work on a robot, could have mistook the muscles and skin as synthetic muscle and skin. He also mentioned that they're not so different from "normal" robots once you get past the newness.

Indeed, LT.

Btw, Sesom, the movie called Blade Runner, not Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It was only loosely based on that story. So, it say isn't like A Clockwork Orange which is a film much more consistent with the book and is titled the same.

If you take Blade Runner for what it is, it dang good film. But not a good idea for FO.

For the constant "too advanced" argument. OWB wasn't much better in this matter.

@evlbastrd

No need to tell me. I know. Phillip K dike btw. worked on the first renditions of the scripts and I didn't like what changes Ridley Scott made. But that's a bit offtopic.