Mods, keep in mind that this isn't related to just FO4 but the series in general. Please don't lock.

I was playing Metro: Last Light the other day and was making mental comparisons in my head to Fallout. They both take place in worlds ruined by Nuclear Warfare, and center around someone trying to survive in these worlds. It is supposed to be a difficult life, one in which you could die at any moment. And after playing Last Light, I look back at Fallout as a complete failure in this aspect. Why do we not need to filter the air to make it breathable, why do our characters somehow manage to become prosperous when the rest of the world is ruined? I understand that Fallout takes place long after the bombs dropped, but it was the destruction of the whole world! In certain places I get why the theme is that you can become rich and not suffer from all types of ash and radiation (New Vegas protected itself from the bombs when they fell) but if you look at Fallout 3 you start to become confused. The water is still bad (for some reason the land isn't though) , the people have next to no defense (look at Megaton) and yet they are establishing cities and defeating the creatures spawned by the war easily! I think its a major immersion breaker and needs to be changed to a system where you need to take certain precautions to survive.

- Gas Mask for exploring most areas (except the civilizations with tech to clean the air, like New Vegas or Shady Sands)

- Mutated creatures should be far more threatening, make sneaking a better option then frontal assault.

- Make ragtag communities survive underground instead of being able to do it so easily above, they shouldn't have the power to.

- Keep the player from becoming the overlord of death, the games becomes boring when that happens and breaks immersion.

I think Fallout 4 speculation and suggestions has become a thread about future Fallout games in general. I'd post your suggestions there because I can picture the mods locking this.

-Because Fallout 3 is set 200 years after the war, whereas Metro is set like 20 years after the war. Radiation levels have dropped to the point of not needing them.

-Because we have skills, and skills pay the bills, especially in a ruined world where most people are uneducated, and unable to do anything themselves.

-The land is bad...... what are you talking about? many places are still heavily irradiated, and plant life beyond the most basic grass is nonexistent, and farming of any sort is impossible because the soil is ruined.

-No defense? You mean besides the giant, 20 foot tall, metal wall with sniper posts?

-You mean besides the Deathcalws, Yao Guai, Giant Radscorpions, and Super Mutants, all of which are plowing through any human who comes across them, except the BoS.

-Gas masks shouldn't be necessary, its been over 200 years since the war, radiation levels wouldn't be high enough to require one.

-Considering mutated creatures are shown as being able to plow through most people..... they kinda are.

-Again, its been 200 years, no one would need to stay underground anymore, radiation levels aren't that bad.

-The only thing that should keep the player from becoming uber-powerful is the player's own choice,

A vast majority of atmospheric radioactivity would well... fall out of the atmosphere in a matter of years if not months, and the particles would be trapped in the groundwater/soil instead. So beyond the the early days air filtration would be a non-issue, and anyways if you're caught in fallout you'll still be taking some radiation even if you're not breathing the particles so you wouldn't want to be outside even with a gas-mask.

Both series portray a post-nuclear world differently. Metro has has the world be unrealistically hazardous to drive its grimdark, desperate survivors. Fallout on the other hand ignores issues like the radiation in the soil and by extension, all post-war foodstuffs, and other things to take a more lighthearted look at the world.

Even Oasis has irradiated areas and all their, water is irradiated actually all of the CWs natural water is irradiated, and New Vegas isnt as bad because House was able to disarm a number of nukes around the mojave area. EDIT : not dissagreeing with who I quoted just adding to.