Morrowind had plenty of hardships and consequense right in the base game. Even still vampires have always stronglychanged gameplay and made it harder in the ES games pre Dawnguard so it really wouldnt be that hard to program proper ghoulism.

Might be some miscommunication here. My original point was that there doesn't need to be people like the Think Tank and or The Institute to make a cure. If Bethesda wants to have a cure they will come up with a guy like Pinkerton if need be. After people pointed out Pinkerton might have had the use of machines to do what he did, I agreed that makes him more plausible as a character. Learning how to work an auto doc or some other such device over 40 years is a lot easier to believe than figuring out how to do complex facial surgery.

I'd rather there be a long quest line to cure Ghoulification that ends with the attempt to cure it failing miserably, maybe even killing another Ghoul that was looking to be cured. Have the devs dangle the possibility only to reveal that it can't be done.

Looking at Ghoulification as scientifically as I can, it seems impossible to manufacture a complete cure for ever Ghoul out there. Their DNA, the building blocks of what makes them as biological beings, has mutated and altered from what it used to be. You can't just "undo" that, especially because it's unlikely they have any cells left that have their original DNA. You could potentially cure it by finding an unspoiled DNA sample and synthesizing some treatment that would help foster cellular growth with cells containing that DNA, but that wouldn't work for most Ghouls, considering any samples of them pre Ghoulification are probably all gone.

I think I see.

I also want to say, and while this may sound like a fan-boy operating on blind faith, I really believe Bethesda is listening to Fallout's long time fans as far as design, canon, and story plausibility. We've seen many visual design changes in the art work, and having a skill system that makes our characters unique and specialized is also a big step in the right direction. As far as quest design and dialog - we have no idea what's in store. I am hopeful they are vastly improved upon from Fallout 3 though.

I think Bethesda realizes that Elder Scrolls fans are much more forgiving when it comes to story line, and canon, and Fallout fans are a bit more hardcoe with the particulars of the Fallout universe. With that said, I really believe they are trying to stay true to the Fallout universe.

Ha! That would be cool also

OR... the cure turns you completely feral lol

But I am! Beatrix and Tulip are my waifu's!

Yup. But it's in Fallout as well, Old World Blues. Worked for Wasteland, not so much for Fallout IMO.

Wasteland is zanier than Fallout, or at least was supposed to be. (Where did the neon rave-punks go?)

...And that was no accident.

Also: see my SIG

Ghouls... only one thing to say.

Stay away from me, shuffle stepping brain eating, grave loving zombie!

They do establish the origins of his scientific knowledge. He was descended form a group called the Naval Research Institute:

"Well, start believing or start walking! Remnants of the Naval Research Institute cleared the Mirelurks off this wreck about 40 years ago. We were looking for new lab-space, and this bucket of bolts just happened to have a well-preserved science bay on it. Everything else just grew up around that lab once we got it up and running. The science team was led by one "H. Pinkerton."

From the name, I always imagined it as something that evolved from a vestige of the pre-war military, like that "The Last Ship" show.

I've no problem with there being an optional mod to play as a ghoul, or, even a mod that allows for a chance of becoming a ghoul, but, I can only really see such being a mod that can and will be added by folks that such a thing appeals to.

On the other hand, considering the retro-futuristic nature of the game, if such a mod implemented the old layman perspective on radiation exposure we see all through the science fiction genre, then adding in ghoulification as one of many possibilities, perhaps based on a character's Luck attribute would be a more well rounded option, and possibly an interesting "rank" to Wild Wasteland.

For instance, Wild Wasteland adds odd things to the game. Wild Wasteland Rank 2 could make chances of strange things happening even more likely as well as adding options like the chance of becoming a ghoul, or, the chance of getting bitten by a radioactive spider and developing certain abilities, or, getting irradiated by Vita-ray radiation and either getting Captain America bonus stats or getting those bonus stats at the expense of Charisma as your face melts off and turn you into something like Red Skull, or, you get hit with Gamma Radiation under certain circumstances which in other certain circumstances, perhaps semi-random, causes you to grow 10x bigger and become limited to melee combat, but, melee combat with huge bonuses but maybe at the expense of completely shredding whatever armor or clothing you happen to be wearing ... and many other possibilities.

Thus, one could have the CHANCE to become a ghoul due radiation, but, there could also be chances of other weird retro-futuristic radiation-related effects happening too.