if this is really what you're using as "research" and "evidence" then I'm surprised anyone is actually taking you seriously. That image is old and just illustrating the dangers of the wasteland, not a perk for a game that hadn't even been thought of yet

Thank you for taking the time to find this. What's significant here is the fact that Bethesda are well known to sow the seeds of future games well ahead of time, as seen by the very obvious references to fallout shelter in the original Fallout 3 trailer, as per http://www.gamesradar.com/seeds-fallout-shelter-were-planted-fallout-3-trailer article. What this means is that, even before Fallout 3 had been released, Bethesda may well have been planning to add this feature into Fallout 4. And looking at this artwork alongside the icon, as well as the details I mentioned about the ghoul pirate/redcoat, it is does suggest that I may have been right all along!

EDIT: note the words 'initial exposure' and 'prolonged exposure' have been removed, which is also significant, as this suggests a process that will enter each consecutive stage after a single trigger.

I think it would be interesting if 'Ghoulification' could be done in the way of Vampires in Dawnguard.

As a DLC, it could add Ghoultowns, outposts, conclaves etc. of differing outlooks (one could be out to 'spread the word' of equality through ghoulifying outsiders, another wants to wage war, while a third wants to educate outsiders about how ghouls are people too, just different, etc.).

I'd like to add that having partial ghoulification would be interesting. If we go by having to select a number of perks along the way to progress the ghoulification process, each additional perk can act as a milestone of becoming a ghoul. The character would have to go to extra lengths to hide their somewhat ghoulishness from those who hate 'their' kind.

Maybe like the Faction system in Fallout: New Vegas, a Ghoul Reaction system would work with Ghoulification. As the character becomes a Ghoul, individuals and groups may have their own idea of acceptance/rejection/fear towards him/her.

The main difference between vampires and werewolves in Skyrim and Ghouls in Fallout 4 is the powers. Vampires and Werewolves have a ton of cool powers, but Ghouls just has healed by radiation. Ghoulification would give some interesting gameplay, but the penalties outweigh the benefits.

There's illustrations from the guide that ghoul drawing was from all across the Fallout website.

What's telling is your immediate drawing of vindication from it even though it was old school material released before Fallout 3 which also contained no Ghoulification.

Eh, I'm still not sold on this. Admittedly, I'm highly biased (I really wouldn't want to see Ghouls treated like Elder Scrolls Vampires but with a Science! twist,) but this still seems like quite a leap to me.

The lore behind Ghouls has never not been a mess, going all the way back to the beginning. So it's not like there's much of an argument to be made in terms of lore contradictions (because there's already so many already - they're created by FEV exposure or just radiation, that they're more comfortable around radiation became getting healed by radiation, a small population that is slowly disappearing turns to they're relatively commonplace and appear all over the continent, then it turns out they're effectively immortal, it either takes years for the physical appearance to fully manifest or it's instantaneous, etc... and even Fallout 2 messed around messed around with a lot of this so it's not like Bethesda is the outlier here.) But even so...

For one, it seems odd to me that you'd select a Perk on level up to turn into a Ghoul, or have a Perk related to Ghoulification in some way. There have already been perks that grant bonuses to being exposed to radiation (like the quest Perk you get in Fallout 3 while doing the Survival Guide for Moira that lets you heal crippled limbs through radiation,) but none of those made you a Ghoul or gave you Ghoul traits. I could see a Perk that gives you radiation-based bonuses of some sort, but that doesn't mean that it's anything to do with Ghouls.

I have that book from my Fallout 3 Collector's Edition that the image in question came from: That's not a picture of The Vault Dweller turning into a Ghoul - it's just a representation of a guy turning into a Ghoul, explaining the dangers of radiation exposure. So I think it's a bit of a jump going from a non-specific picture from a tchotchke from a previous game being reused in promotional materials to concluding that its use this time out points to you specifically being turned into a Ghoul.

I don't think lightning strikes are something that's going to happen to your character, either. We know there will be radiation storms, but there's nothing to point to that being anything other than an event that will raise your radiation levels. I'm sure there will be accompanying dramatic weather effects (along with lightning,) but I don't see anything that points to it being anything more than an atmospheric detail. I doubt that you're going to be getting struck by irradiated lightning, and I'd wager the sole effect of those storms will be straight-up radiation damage.

I dig that you're enjoying coming up with these theories, but I just don't see this happening. But I could of course end up eating my words...

First off, with use of traits (if this system continues from New Vegas), the process can be kicked off. After all, it could be a genetic twist of fate that caused people to become a ghoul with high doses of radiation, as opposed to dying a painful and prolonged death. Unless you take this trait, you get affected by radiation as anyone else.

Perhaps this trait (offering minor radiation resistance, traits tend to be minor stuff after all, and as a counterbalance, there's just something off about the person with this trait that causes people to shy away from him/her, perhaps a minus to Charisma). Having this trait would open up the ability to take Ghoul restricted perks, which could lead to becoming a Glowing One variant of Ghouls. Of course, becoming a Glowing One would cause some problems, after all you'd be positively radiating; so the limitation would be that you'd have to wear environmental suits and armour that would normally protect the wearer from radiation to protect others. Then again, Jason Bright didn't seem to harm the player character (as in bringing up the Rad count), and most other Glowing Ones you'd encounter are Feral, I'd assume the radiation is an AoE attack that's centred on the Glowing One.

Maybe a further hit to Charisma for being a Glowing One would be in order.

All Charisma penalties should be nullified for those who are Ghouls, Super Mutants, those who aren't disgusted/afraid of Ghouls.

Ghouls have a higher Endurance than humans (radiation resistance, like other environmental resistances are tied in with Endurance) which also gives them a resistance to chemicals (remember the Sugar Bombs mission in Fallout 3?).

Another trait they have is healing when being irradiated, so drinking irradiated water, eating irradiated food, standing in a radioactive area would regenerate Ghoul characters.

There was a bonus perk if you got radiated enough in one of Moira Brown's missions in Fallout 3, where your critically wounded limbs can get a regeneration buff when your Rad levels increase, so this would be an extension of this Perk, and then some.

I was reserving judgement on the subject until I read this and realized that it seems extremely far-fetched that there would be ghoulification if the speculation is based on the reasoning that anyone who doesnt want to be a ghoul has to waste up to 9 perks they might npt necessarily want to use.

What say you to this gk7zz?

PS I'm not just naysaying because I'm in the gk7 speculation hater camp. I actually love his ideas, but this one seema to have fallen apart in my mind.

Having ghoulification associated with radioactive lightning allows an important feature than many people are overlooking here, and that is the concept of an advanced warning.

Let's say that you've levelled up a bit, and you've managed to find/make yourself a decent weapon, and you're feeling confident enough to go exploring. You're out in the wastes, and far off in the distance you spot what looks like a destroyed building, and so you head off to check it out. As you approach, you notice stormclouds gathering on the horizon, and they are heading this way. Before long, you see the first lightning strike, and so you decide to make a run for it. You realise that the storm will be overhead very soon, and so you start to sprint. As you reach cover, a bolt of lightning hits the ground a few feet away from where you were standing, but at least you're now safe. After waiting it out for a short while, the storm passes. You decide that in future it would be a better idea to run the other way when you see stormclouds, but you are nonetheless grateful for not being fried or turned into a ghoul.

What's interesting here is that I could have described the process of trying to access a highly irradiated area in search of loot, and nobody would criticise the fact that there are perks and items that would make this scenario less dangerous. Having a perk that not only reduces the effects of explosions, but also partially protects us from lethal radioactive lightning, including the process of being transformed into a ghoul, would no doubt be something that many people will want to take. But there are others who will find perfectly viable alternatives, such as watching the skies for stormclouds, and making sure they are aware of anything that could be used as cover, just in case.

That's sound for survival based modes, but base perks aren't designed to blend with survival/hardcoe mode. It's a conflict of interest with Bethesda preferring to promote exploration rather than punish it. Ghoulification is just a hindrance - there are simply no benefits to it outside of being radiation immune. It seems incredibly dull to have radiation lead to this physically detrimental state that is completely irreversible with present technology.

Oh yeah, I forgot that in this theory the lightning would be avoidable. Does make a bit more sense to me now.

LOL

as I expected.

Lol indeed...

Sorry but I of course did have to point that out

Perk makes you human on the outside, ghoul on the inside pretty much. Radiation heals.

No worries. Look on the bright side though, I helped to keep the troops entertained with all of my theories whilst we had little confirmed info to sink our teeth into. And so, even if they ALL turn out to be wrong, at least they served their purpose

Agreed

My aggravation wasn't even really with you, it was the people that took your theories and ran with them further than you did lol

Good reads, no less though. Without the occasional speculation thread it'll just be complaint threads anyway

That's the right attitude for the whole theory process and my thanks for providing a distraction during the weeks (and months) that have rolled by.......of course the last week is going to seem like an eternity.

Dang it we need this sent back to October 31!

Great outlook GKK.

Im still lost trying to figure out what kind of game FO 4 will be.

My guess is:
Power trip like skyrim, with a state of decay style mini game for settlements. As long as I have this week to cope with the change from my origional concept I'll be good.

So how is it any different from Rad Child? If you don't look like a Ghoul on the outside, then you aren't a Ghoul. What makes a Ghoul a Ghoul is the persecution from looking like a decaying corpse.

The perk probably acts just like Rad Child where the more you are exposed to radiation, the faster you heal. It also has the max radiation killing you with max hp decreasing effect of radiation exposure, but the final perk level might remove the max hp decreasing effect of radiation.

in skyrim you could become a werewolf or vampire, would be great if they finally let you turn into a ghoul in fallout.

So, I'm like 87.6% sure that the perk is actually called Ghoul-ish, so they're merely saying that radiation heals you like a ghoul instead of actually being one. I'm okay with that, since I'm pretty sure they've had radiation healing perks in the past.

There is no more Rad Child so yeah... I won't spoil what the Ghoulish perk actually does in case you haven't looked at the perks

Nah they can keep that. Vamparism and Werewolfism are worlds different from mutated decaying corpse. They'd have to rewrite tons of dialogue and gameplay mechanics to implement it right. Luckily they aren't doing that

yeah i guess you're right, now that your character speaks it would be a lot of extra work to do for such a small feature =/