One thing in common both the Fallout universe and the Real World have in common is WW2 ending when nukes were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In both cases, those bombs created ZERO ghouls. @200-400,000 people killed outright. So, that means the rate at which people become ghoulified is less than 1 in 400,000. Now, ghouls are described as, "Humans that have received an ungodly amount of radiation." (However much "ungodly" amounts to.)

MANY non-feral ghouls that player characters encounter in FO3, FONV, and FO4 relate that they became ghoulified when the war started, now 210 years in the past. If ALL ghouls share that in common, what then would the rate of ghoulification amount to? Assuming the USA population in 2077 amounted to, say, 500 million, and roughly half of them (overestimate) were caught in nuclear blasts across North America, how many ghouls were likely made that day? Using Hiroshima and Nagasaki as benchmarks, one would expect no more than @50, spread across the continent. But using FO3, FONV, and FO4 as ghoul population samples, they suggest that across North America, there would be literally hundreds of thousands of ghouls still remaining after 210 years. After 210 years of being killed on sight by any sentient beings they encounter. The attrition is so harsh, to have the kinds of ghoul populations that we see in FO3, FONV. and FO4, the initial ghoul population would have had to have been in the millions.

It seems to me that Bethesda needs a deeper explanation of what creates ghouls than "People that have taken an ungodly amount of radiation." Something like ther had been biowarfare bombs mixed in with the nukes, the combination of which unexpectedly created long-lived ghouls instead of irradiated diseased corpses.

This is a story line element going back to the original fallout. It just is.

Is already been explained numerous times that Fallout runs on 1950's scifi B-movie SCIENCE! and not real world science.

Or maybe the fact that there are ghouls in Fallout in no way is relatable to the real world just like we don't have giant scorpions or giant mole rats or bloatflies or deathclaws or any of the irradiated examples of common wildlife that is explained away as being a result of radiation from nuclear explosions. Maybe it's just an alternate world and as such doesn't have to rely on our worlds mechanics to function.

I'd argue that there isnt enough ghouls in the game. I would love for them to be able to climb over any thing and jump to reach places they cant walk to. lets make ghouls more dangerous WHO'S WITH ME?!

Never any point in attempting to apply real life logic to in-game logic. I mean, the fact a random raider can take several direct head shots to go down should kinda tell you everything you would want to know. Then there's the insects. Irradiated insects don't grow large because they're well, irradiated, they need oxygen. The more oxygen in the atmosphere, the larger they can grow as was the case millions upon millions of years ago.

Its in my mind intentionally left vague, both to fit in with the 1950s Science! Vibe and to allows creative flexibility.

Also keep in mind post war ghoulification does occour, so the number of ghouls are not just a steady decline from those "created" when the nukes dropped.

ghouls are really scary! especially when they walk slow! and suddenly run to you.
it's feels real.

actually, they don't run--if you count the unnatural animations by which they make at all. They actually move by taking 2-3 non contact steps with the ground. By warping over lunging at them. Across a 15 ft distance. Up a steep incline. With trees, shrubs, and other #%!^@! obstacles in the way. And still make 100% contact with your PC's body. With a 98%+ accuracy.

i'm not really sure what the OP is complaining about...the lore?

however, this is another great place for me to say again...I freaking love the new ghouls and their mechanics xD

not true....

i find it hilarious when they fling themselves at you and trip over themselves, they can be alligator fast, but also very clumsy...

u can come up with strategies against ghouls, hitting them in certain spots stops them in their tracks, and there's nothing better than taking out one of their legs and watching them squirm

IDK. For some reason, the FO4 ghouls behave, look, and act exactly the way TWD walkers do. Whenever I run across these, they're typically hibernating in whatever positions the NPCs apparently died in when the bombs fell. And just like TWD, they tend not to move until the PC is within a certain proximity radius of them. At which point they sloooowly reanimate. Then make their series of unnatural shambling steps looking for your PC intruder. And when they finally triangulate your PC's location, they take their characteristic 2-3 steps in your PC's direction, immediately warp across the room, and then BAM! nail your PC in the kisser.

.

Not to be "that guy", but about 140k people died outright in the Japan bombings. Probably an equal amount from radiation exposure in the next few months, followed buy a significantly higher cancer rate for decades in areas in the blast zone

I love the new ghouls. They're awesome, and the enemy that makes me go [censored] more than anything else. But I also feel they're over-utilized, at least above ground. They're everywhere to the point of it almost feeling like I'm playing a 50% zombie survival game. I'd much rather have a more varied wildlife, or even the introduction of a new class of enemies in addition to supermutants and ghouls. There would be nothing wrong with introducing a new element to the lore if it's done well.

Too many ghouls? Nope! Just not enough bullets!

Okay, I'll leave...

While I very much like the new ghouls, I feel they are overused in FO4, same goes with Raiders and Gun Runners for that matter. Another thing I would like to add to ghouls, is the ability to dug out of the earth / rubble or emerge from water. Once you know what to look for, they are easy to spot. And with the level of sneak I have now for example, I can creep all the way up to them, and 50% of the time sandman kill them or eliminate them before they get off the ground.

Fewer ghouls, but deadlier and better concealed would be great imo.

Edit:typo

You're nuts. You're worried about how ghouls are created, yet giant insect, scorpions, and a lizard vying to take the top of the food chain doesn't bother you at all?

Just pretend it's an alternate form of radiation, since it's an alternate universe.

That's what they want you to think. In fact practically the entire populations of both cities became ghouls, but were hidden away to become radiation proof workers in America's nuclear weapons programs. China needed to nuke some of their own population to compete.

The problem us that, relatively speaking, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki saw a brief spike of radiation that dropped down by 80% within 24 hours. Immediate Ghoulification can happen (Moira Brown), but it seems to be rare.

When the Great War occurred, the radiation spiked, and then persisted for at least... according to the Survivalist... a good three months before it dropped to below "immediately lethal" levels. According to Vault 101, the CW wasn't considered safe for unsuited exploration until 2241.

And Boston still has periodic radiation storms 200 years after the bomb drop.

The Lead Designer of Fallout, Chris Taylor, stated that Ghouls were a result of radiation and the Forced Evolutionary Virus. However, Tim Cain stated that it was radiation based on the limited understanding of radiation in the 1950s.

As the MST3K theme song went:

"If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts: repeat to yourself it's just a show game I should really just relax"

everytime i hear the sound of ghouls, my heart started beating fast.
because they suddenly run to me will really scare me!
better to use headphone. and go out at night

Unlike the ghouls, giant rad critters came about as generational mutations. That is the heavily radiated environment promoted genetic alterations that resulted in giantism, increased muscle mass, etc. Even Supermutants are explained as a deliberate genetic alteration with Forced Evolutionary Virus. Allowing for the '50s Scifi kitch, pretty much all of the Wasteland mutations sort of fits -- except for the ghouls.

Had ghouls been presented as products of being born into a heavily radiated environment, with the ghoulification being the genetic mutation that resulted in several generations residing too close to radioactive hotspots -- after all, people couldn't see the radiation that was changing them -- then large numbers of ghouls would be just as explainable as Giant Radscorpions, Molerats, etc. It would also have explained just why it was that 200+ years after the bombs, there was still such a large ghoul population.

I am not sure where all these Super Mutants come from either since I thought they were meant to be infertile?