What would make this interesting would be to study the political, social,military and racial history of texas first. Ive lived here all my life and was first raised on an army base near austin. Now Texas has 5 major cities-Houston, Dallas/For Worth, Austin and San Antonio. Now before current residence jump on me and down vote me to hell for not being completely accurate let me say that yes I know theres more than that but those are the biggest trade and development centers. After those five would be Midland/Odessa-Oil Refineries, Beaumont-shipping and again refineries, Galveston-Active sea port, tourist hub and small military bases. Houston is known for having a vastly superior port and refinery and is divided into many constables much like LA. And its also the home of the johnson space center.
Austin being the capital city is at present expanding how ever its always been known as a liberal hub, despite the fact that the current political regime is the exact opposite-The University of Texas is there as well.
Dallas is known for its massive interconnecting high ways, is home to many high level technology and research firms and historically its sister city of Fort Worth was known as the "Gate way to the west."-Think about the many cowboy style adventures you could have roaming the western wasteland on a mutated beast, robot horse/motorcycle or some kind of awesome mecha suit that you unearthed from one of the research hubs or one of the army/air force bases and Naval Air station Dallas/Fort worth !
Houston has always been plagued by economic struggle, people there are either very rich or very poor. I know that might infuriate some of you but this is just my opinion based off of what I've seen and learned over the last few decades. We can debate that later.
One simple fact remains is that three of the most notorious constables are known as third, fourth and fifth ward. The university of houston is located in 3rd ward as well as its sister school Texas Southern University. I lived there briefly and can say that the individuals in my neighborhood were decent folk trying to make a living with what they could get their hands on sadly like Brooklyn or Queens you wouldn't want to travel alone at night. Before I digress what would make this interesting would be that many of the survivors in south houston walled off the wards to prevent raiders, slavers and scavengers from invading. Down Town Houston, The medical District and Rice Village would be reduced to rubble and infested with raiders, super mutants, slavers, enclave and various other forms of scum and villainry. Of course there would be pockets of "civilization" all around the former metropolis. South of houston is another constable known as pasadena. A vast refinery and an airfield are the only things I can think of that would make it interesting and would definately come into play-The woodlands,Tomball and Conroe could've been reduced to rubble or they could be vault sites and of course Huntsville- A modern day prison city and college town-Interesting side note, what if the surviving inmates, guards and their families converted the death row unit, and all remaining cell blocks into a savage community run by frontier justice and the threat of being executed in the most barbaric and grisly fashion. Of course the brother hood would have a strong presence in this city. A crusade of fire and death to purge than unclean and annihilate the super mutant infestation would be perfect. Especially if the wards were at war with each other and one could use the Brotherhoods strength against the other wards or you could unite them as a single force to wipe out the super mutants.
Galveston on the other hand has always been a port city and was founded by pirates, smugglers and conquistadors since the 1500s. The main commercial jem on the coast line is protected by a sea wall to prevent tidal disasters. The west end past this is a vast wetland populated by snakes, fish, crabs and some times alligators and sand sharks in the bay. The city is connected to the mainland via causeway. The east end is a combination of hospitals, old houses and a small joint military base on the far tip. The reason I mention galveston is because during the second world war the coast line and sea wall were littered with pill boxes, artillery batteries and Patrol Boat docks. Pelican Island was a submarine and destroyer harbor. I could be wrong about that but present day pelican Island has a naval museum with an intact destroyer and a sea wolf class submarine on display. Now before the nuclear holocaust galveston would again be retrofitted into a naval/marine corps base to protect texas and western louisiana from being invaded by Cuba and various communist forces from Mexico and South America !
The scenery would be incredibly bleak- Constant toxic thunderstorms bombard the entire gulf coast region. The causeway would've been demolished, rusting gigantic plasma artillery cannons that could eviscerate an aircraft carrier or amphibious invasion fleet would dot the coast line. The surviving residents could have moored the remaining battle cruisers,Tankers and resort boats into a floating city 3 times the size of rivet city and 10 times as destitute, the sea wall would have been fortified into a giant siege proof wall complete with steel/concrete guard towers, machine gun/mortars nests (reminescent of mid evil style castles) and a malfunctioning electro static barrier to prevent the wetlands from being flooded and to prevent the myriad of mutated reptiles, mire lurks and cannibals from invading-Interesting side quest wouldn't you agree?
The galveston security force could possibly be a loose and fragile alliance of pirate guilds, Mercenaries and possible envoys from either the Brother Hood of Steel or a new faction-The budding legions of the texas empire !
San Antonio and Midland/Odessa have not maintained any kind of contact with any of the major cities-Beaumont as well. Its possible they were wiped out or they've been over run and populated by cannibals, super mutants or the enclave !
New Austin would be the seat of the empires government and as such would be much like a crumbling Rome.the throne is beset on all sides by corruption, bigotry, war and terror. The new government could be a monarchy based upon who ever had the most money, weapons, popular support and of course the machiavellian concept that "the ends always justify the means ."
The brotherhood of steel could have a main base here or outside the city limits. Theirs mission parameters remain the same-Finding and preserving technology and routing out and destroying the enclave. From here one could really delve into a world of shadow politics, assassination, bribery or honor, courage, conviction and human decency. Your choice of course but it would really add tension and intrigue into a world of adventure and violence. This is where the main quest would come into fruition. Uniting all of the "city states" of texas into a solid coalition and securing the throne for yourself by political machinations, gaining the respect of the people and the military or just by murdering any one that gets in your way!
Now to start off I was thinking about the main character spawning from an Enclave Vault or a former vault tec vault that was forcefully annexed by the enclave. The vault would be located under the johnson space center in league city-A very large and at present a thriving upscale community south of downtown houston.This time around the "president" would be the voice of a woman and her eyebots and video transmissions would involve her espousing the typical right wing fascistic jibberish that the enclave is known to spout. For what ever reasons the main character is cast out or sent on a suicide mission to recon galveston's threat potential and the possiblity of it being annexed as a trading port and a dock for future naval bases. Also they would probably want you to scout around all of the rotting oil derricks off of the coast. One of them could be an enclave research hub or a listening post so they can eliminate the Brother hood of steel presence on the island. Once you've escaped or accepted your orders your first order of business would have to involve scavenging whats left of the space center. "Houston we have a problem." could be the mission title. Of course you could just get lost in houston or the other cities in order to build you're level, find new equipment, upgrade existing stuff, join a faction, destroy another, make friends, find romance etc.
If any body has any comments or would like to add to this concept feel free to hit me up !