Let me start by saying that I am as big of a fan of Bethesda's games as anyone. They are, by far my favorite developers and their open world games are like no other. However, the one thing that drives me nuts about Fallout is the lack of vehicles. Specifically motorcycles and cars. What's worse is that now it seems that we'll have access to a vertibird which begs the question, the technology is there for vertibirds but not cars or motorcycles? It just makes it difficult for me to suspend my disbelief that this is even possible. I realize that Bethesda isn't going to put something in the game (like vehicles) if it doesn't work right and I'm willing to be that is the case once again for Fallout 4. However, by the time Fallout 5 rolls around and they're (hopefully) using a new engine, I hope that one can accommodate the use of vehicles.

Someone that's more familiar with the lore can probably explain it better but the reason you don't really see vehicles is that the lack of fossil fuel drove the world in to chaos and since it was FUBARd not many organizations really have the technology to produce alternative fuel sources. Vertibirds are pretty much exclusive to the BoS/Enclave from what I understood.

The vertibirds aren't being built, they're found by the Brotherhood or the Enclave, and likely run on fusion power like a lot of cars began to be before 2077. The problem really just is most of the cars are too delapidated to function, but iirc there was one or two cars in fallout 1/2.

I don't think we can assume vertibirds are at our disposal just based on the small predetermined footage we have. Looked to me like it's part of a specific quest. Pop flare, pickup, fly over, shoot at rooftops, safe LZ, jump out, continue fight. Seems extremely unlikely we'll have any control beyond that. Why wouldn't we just fly around the whole time shooting at enemies that couldn't defend against a vertibird? I think too many people read way too far into that clip we were shown.

The PC defended quite well against a vertibird in the footage we've seen. But you may be right.

Uhh no, most vehicles had switched over to fusion based power sources before the war, which is why even motorcycles explode in small nuclear explosions in Fo3.

Well, consider the amount of hostiles in the wasteland. Consider the state of the roads. Traveling like that on the ground is nothing but a threat magnet. And given the tendency for vehicles to explode.. unwise.

Flying objects are incredibly easy to do because they have no chance of colliding with anything. Ground vehicles are always far harder, because you have to design the physics and stuff for them coming into contact with all the broken and distorted ground, and all the random junk on the ground.

And given that even games that have had ground vehicles for decades, such as GTA, still cant seem to solve the "touch something = car flying in the air" problem, and that Fallout's landscape is blasted to all hell, its pretty clear why Beth would want to avoid ground vehicles.

They actually had working carriages in Skyrim, but scrapped them for the same reasons, even the fan made mod using the devs code has many issues.

Yeah the PC defends just fine but we slaughter raiders on the ground no problem. I just think it won't be as people are seeing it from the trailer. It could literally be just for that one quest but we don't know for a couple weeks

The cars and other motorized vehicles probably got fried from nuclear electromagnetic pulses. They didn't run on fossil fuels anymore, but all the electronics are no doubt shot. But the core is still there, hence they explode like a mini-nuke when you shoot a car enough.

Vertibirds that are operational have probably been stowed away in a save place, and are now being used by the Enclave and to some degree the Brotherhood of Steel. They arent constructed new, as far as we know, but they are recovered.

We have seen te player character being flown around in a Vertibird while manning the on-board gattling gun. And apparently the player has the option to jump out or land.

Also we've seen the player character summon a Vertibird, potentially to fly and/or to drop off the players Power Armor.

Not much is known about the players interaction with the Vertibird.

I think most people are believing that it is not quest related for the fact that there is a "Land" and "Jump" button. If it was quest specific set piece why would they let us jump out of the set piece moment or land the set piece moment.

I myself think it is going to be something similar to the NCR radio and this will be something you can use if you get enough favor with the BoS.

i think it will work as a Fast Travel mechanics where u can shoot from it.

On the topic of the post.

And no only the ground-colloidal issue cards have one game, but Fallout base the whole exploration combat on foot, what that mean, mean that everything is made so u face it face to face, and if they introduce a vehicle u can exploit it for combat.

Look a game like Mad Max, it have a excellent vehicle combat but the foot combat is plain. not to mention the whole map is open space with "settlements", that mean u have a lot of empty space so u just can driver and driver. A good example of what i said is imagine a forest that forest on a vehicle game wont be big since u cant driver trow it. Same go for ruins and stuff like that. That way u focus on big empty areas to driver and combat.

For me im glad Fallout and ES still focus more on foot exploration since allow them to exploit a lot more the details, lol. Giving vehicles, not only to u but to raider and other factions to balance combat, will mean Fallout need to droop the foot exploration for vehicle one, and that will change the game from what it is.

My opinion may not be the opinion of majority but i personally dont like the idea of vertibirds... I liked F3 type of barrenness, to be forced to scavange parts for the simplest of gear items. Kind of a back to stoneaege feeling. I hope that having high tech flying machines dont ruin that. But i understand that it is the world that is Fallout and im okay with that

I completely agree with this and it exemplifies my point. The developers can't make it work so they don't put it in. Which I can respect. But I just have a hard time justifying it/suspending my disbelief in the actual game.

Well, in lore, we know these things work.

We know that, by the time of Fallout 2, 1/200 people in the NCR had a working vehicle of some kind, and we see several instances of raiders fixing up motorcycles in Fallout 3.

They do TRY to at least show people have working vehicles of some kind, even if they don't actually work in-game.

You do understand that if you had a vehicle, such as a car, you would be the only person with an operating car in the wasteland? Do you have any clue what this would mean?

You would be constantly accosted by every single fireman in the wasteland as they perpetually surround your car while holding out boots, hoping you would toss in a few caps.

Exactly. It is implied that there are working vehicles in the fallout lore but very rare.

This seems more plausible to me than a call whenever fast travel option. So many times I wasn't able to use the NCR radio haha

Wasn't there a mission

is like i say in many many post achieving a balance between foot and vehicle combat/exploration is hard. Look games like Rage or GTA where there is a hard hard different between each. Fallout and ES focus on foot combat/exploration exploiting it really well.

Look a game like Witcher 3 if u play it u know how easy is to exploit combat on while raiding a horse, not only u get bonus dmg from speed, also make it super easy to dmg incoming attack.

just look when u play GTA every time u grab a vehicle the first think u do is run over ppl, bc is more easy to kill it that shoot it. Im not speaking if u play RPG way or no, at the end game are made for everyone and most ppl will use a vehicle to just run over raider or mutants bc is easy to kill it that way.

Vertibirds were actually post-war creations of the Enclave (though prototypes existed prior to the war breaking out).

The Enclave had a pretty strong industry backing them, which is why they were so scary.

And yes, the Fallout 2 mission was about stealing the Vertibird plans so the Brotherhood could then construct them as well.

It doesn't make much sense, the lore supports both existing (and working), they aren't super common but it's not like some mystical "unheard" of thing, and it makes logical sense that people would make use of them, repair the ones they can , etc.

What makes less sense is the lack of pack animals, I mean yes horses went bye bye, but Brahmin are still used, so naturally they should also have , or at least be working on using other pack animals as a means to travel (donkeys, etc).

Also the roads and terrain of the Fallout universe don't lend themselves very well to land vehicles so cars and motorcycles. Rolling hills, huge rocks. So fixing most of the vehicles you see lying around the road would be pointless. And forget taking the vehicle into ruined cities. The vehicle would also be a magnet for thieves and raiders. And assuming you had an engine that could power it, same said engine could also be used power lights, defense turrets, water purifiers or another things back home. Fallout 2 took place over half of California, a car would be necessary to getting around. The later sandbox games take place within a day's walk of where ever you are going. Even if these vehicles exist it wouldn't be much help to The Courier, Lone Wanderer or Survivor. Hell a car might be slower for short trips because they have to go around obstructions and avoid ending up in a ditch. And for more regular wastelanders with a car, its use would be for transporting goods between settlements not exploring the wasteland where it'd liable to be ripped apart by giant scorpions.

The Fallout games always take place on the "frontier" we don't have a game taking place in the civilized NCR territory. So we don't have a technological middle class. Its either stone age and salvage or Brotherhood/Enclave level. The few groups with the ability to build a car could also have a Vertibird and the latter can fly out of the reach of trouble and land in the middle of ruined cities.

If cars made a return to fallout it'd be because we switched from Sandbox to a system more like what's found in early Fallout's or Dragon Age Inquisition. Where you have a world map and each location is its own little sandbox. The car would function exactly like it did in FO2 getting around the world map more quickly not the active map where you actually shoot stuff and talk to people.

Skyrim and Oblivion have horses... but they aren't all that useful for getting around even without using fast travel. The main use is the ironic fact they can climb steep hills and mountains better then you. But that won't work for cars

Donkeys went extinct also IIRC.

I agree with your logic that, yeah, there probably *should* be cars/motorcycles.

But, I disagree with the *want* of vehicles in Fallout. I never want to drive a car in Fallout, ever. IMO, the world is meant to be explored and traversed–slowly– not passed by in a car. It detracts from the spirit of the game.