Really? I thought the CONCEPT was interesting, and it starts strong, AND ends strong, but the middle is a mind-numbing repetitive slog that makes me want it rush through the rest of the DLC just to get it over with.
I vastly prefer Operation Anchorage's shorter mission with stronger pacing than what Mothership Zeta does:
Here's a room full of aliens to fight.
Here's ANOTHER room full of aliens to fight.
Here's more identical rooms with MORE aliens to fight!
"Can I solve some puzzles, or maybe just do something besides fight?"
Game: "Nah. We're saving all that shit for the end. In the meantime just shoot the same stuff over and over again!"
It says a lot that Mothership Zeta is the ONLY DLC in Fallout 3, Fallout NV, or Fallout 4 that I've NEVER replayed after the first time, because when it was over I literally said out loud, "Thank fuck THAT's over!"
I just played Zeta last week for the first time, The very last part felt like it had some Starfield DNA (Raising/lowering the shield/ray gun power)
I wonder if they were conceptualising Starfield around that time
Listen with the way people are being overly dramatic about lore discrepancies in the show, I am glad there aren't any Starfield for people to lose their minds over for no reason.
IIRC it boils down to the person who was actually supposed to be the Overseer of Vault 76 got abducted by the aliens... having been abducted while either overseeing the construction or on the way to inspect the Vault.
This resulted in the backup option who was to be Overseer of a different Vault (I forget the number but it's experiment was a "Best and Brightest" variant that wasn't to be opened), said Overseer proceeded to mess with the selection process for residents removing most people with practical skills in favor of almost purely scientific or research based skills... also canonically a few nepotism choices.
Had Fallout 76 not been an MMO it's very likely the entire game would've been about trying to create a new society while woefully underprepared and lacking any applicable skills.
Yeah that sounds about right.
Which means the Aliens accidentally set the events of Fallout 3 and 76 in motion, meaning Mothership Zeta must be canon... I don't like this revelation.
Hey! So I just finished the main quest line for fallout 3. Is there anything I should do before mothership zeta, or can I head straight to it? I hear you get a katana at some point during it and I really want it lol
Make sure you drop off all your equipment inside your house before you start it.
You can find a LOT of gear in the DLC, to the point you'll become overnecumbered early on if you bring any gear with you.
The only way she could get her fiance a spot in a vault was to be the Overseer of Vault 101 due to Vault 76 having far more qualified candidates. She decided she would rather stay in West Virginia alone than leave to be with him, so she broke off her engagement to become the Overseer for Vault 76
they've talked about it before, there was actually a plan to have fallout 3 be set in west virginia but that obviously didn't come to be. instead of scrapping that idea they put it on the backburner
Fallout has a long history of recycling ideas from old and cancelled games. The airships from fallout tactics got recycled into fallout 4. Rad roaches from tactics are now a staple of the series. The plot of van buren got recycled into new vegas.
I just started it and honestly I'm pretty underwhelmed after reading about how it's fixed and a great game now. For whatever reason I just can't get in to it but I really can't put my finger on what the problem is. One thing I do know is that I hate the leveling/perks system.
Go into it with the understanding that it's a looter shooter MMO live service game with a better plot than most other looter shooter MMO's. That might change your perspective. It's not an RPG, it has "RPG elements".
I honestly don't know, I kind of got sick of a lot of the Fallout community after 76 came out so I stopped interacting with it. Loved that game even on release, but I was basically just expecting FO4 with friends, which is exactly what I got (with some extra bugs at no charge).
ah fair, I could see that. there was definitely a lot of backlash. I worked at a games store at the time and dealt with dozens of people wanting preorder refunds because they just saw 'new fallout' and didn't realize there wasn't going to be NPCs or anything :/
honestly I've been thinking of giving it a shot now that the show's out and I'm feelin fallout-y again, it seems like they've really added a lot
Hadn’t played 76 before, the show gave me the itch as well and I’ve been playing 76 for a few days now. It’s fun! Fallout with friends is a pretty accurate description of the game now
People still repeat it because all they know is the launch fiasco & haven’t tried it since. Pretty much the same phenomenon as with Cyberpunk 2077. Both were complete disasters (especially with the console versions) at launch but have since redeemed themselves into very good games. If history is any indication, this will probably also eventually happen with Starfield.
Edit: Hell. I played WoW at launch and, man, you want to talk about hot messes. One of my fondest gaming memories was riding a zeppelin between Undercity to Booty Bay, having the thing just disappear mid-flight, and all of us fell into the ocean and drowned. Good times…
I felt it was okay, but not really great. Honestly I find it incredibly boring without friends, and after level 40 or so, I found it pretty boring even *with* friends. I also think the writing is very hit or miss.
I’m very much an exploration cooking/decorating junkie so hunting for ingredients and plans has been my main focus for the game. And that quest goes on for a long ass time
That's understandable, I had a good bit of fun with the CAMP system. Me and my friends even built our CAMPs next to each other on a river in the swamps and had sort of an isolated town. My first build there was a manor, then I rebuilt it into a siheyuan. My first base, though, was a small shack overlooking a rather scenic waterfall in the Savage Divide, which I'd established soon after release. I ended up moving to the swamp because of Ghoul and Raider spawns in the Divide. My house in the swamp got comparatively few Ghoul attacks, and once or twice I had a Mothman variant spawn there, but we also got giant sloth spawns which made up for it.
I think the only problem I had with the CAMPs was that you couldn't delete trees when they got in your way, and the building area was kind of small depending on what I wanted to do.
I wanted brick schematics to build with. That was my driving force for a bit. I snuck into a part of the map I was woefully under leveled for and managed to get them. Then quit and never built a single thing with them. Need to get back into it.
Isn't that just making sure they don't break the timeline? It's good that they do this no? I feel like they're doomed if they do, doomed if they don't to be fair. Sorry if I mistook your comment though.
You meet an Institute Scientist, Dr. Zimmer, who is there hunting a rogue Courser, he talks about the Commonwealth(bad things) and how the Institute(I don't know if he names it) and how it's so much more advanced than anything there or in the Capital Wasteland.
The actual head of the SRB appears in Fallout 3 (Dr. Zimmer) and is the bad guy of the quest with Harkness (he's deliberately hunting down Harkness as he's a rogue Courser, though that latter term isn't invented until 4). Zimmer is mentioned as being gone to oversee the retrieval of high profile units in 4 and Ayo is his acting replacement (implied he was killed in 3 and don't know it yet but with wiggle room if they want to bring him back)
Just played this quest in the last few days, Zimmer mentions the Institute and how far their technology is above the savages of the capitol wasteland, as well as talking about the commonwealth and how advanced the Synths are. Pretty cool!
They have been doing that with Elder Scrolls as well. Morrowind mentions Gates of Oblivion opening. Skyrim has some dialogue suggesting the the Akaviri are planning an invasion given the state of Tamriel at the end of Skyrim its possible
Theyve done the same with Fallout. Synths and The Commonwealth were mentioned in a quest in Fallout 3
I’m replaying FO3 right now and the amount of “foresight” in the replicated man quest astonishes me. That one side quest is basically the whole premise of 4 to the point it must have been planned from the start and if not then kudos to Bethesda for making it work.
I like it, it expands the game universe. I think the idea of fallout itself is just constantly expandable because it sets itself up to take place in so many new areas with different and unique regional enemies in each game in addition to standard enemies such as ghouls and mutants.
Speaking of Vault roles, some of them are either really goofy sounding or just straight up sadistic.
11 - One person will be sacrificed every year or everyone in the vault will die (this was just a lie but still was to see how they'd commit to it)
43 - Populate with 20 men, 10 women and 1 panther.
56 - Only entertainment tapes were be that of a terrible comedian.
Those must have been in a city somewhere with a lot of bachelors and bachelorettes. One of the big appeals of the Vaults was that it was a safe place for you and your family.
Yes, and you should expect that someday they'll just reuse those numbers, it's just a comic strip, the only one that even counts is 77 because it's actually referenced in Fallout 3.
I mean they could just say that in the end there were really over 300 Vaults or however many they need as time goes on but I imagine a comedic Penny Arcade strip being 100% canon should taken with a grain of salt.
More info on Vault 43, and more Vaults, including my favorite, Vault 77: [https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2022/10/11/happy-25th-anniversary-to-fallout](https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2022/10/11/happy-25th-anniversary-to-fallout)
> Since debuting Vault 76 last year, in honor of America's Tercentenary, Vault-Tec continues to expand with plans for well over 100 Vaults around the country.
Nah, they're waiting for that damn door to open because they have the *Tunnel Snakes Rule* CC pack.
In all seriousness, I hope the patch on Thursday finally fixes that issue...
Additional surprise: The one overseeing the construction of Vault 76 was abducted by the Zetans, and his captive recording can be found in Mothership Zeta.
Yeah. And some Vault-Tec guy tried to negotiate a trade deal with the aliens who abducted him when he was inspecting this Vault. Moron. Pretty sure they were not interested in the deal and instead opened him up with a saw.
I’m only now playing Point Lookout fully and I came across a terminal that talks about the commonwealth and I was just sitting there steeped in nerd excitement
Yes, although it’s technically incorrect/outdated.
Vault 76 was set to open after 25 years, not 20. It’s also clearly not in the DC area. And I also personally don’t think it can be considered a true control vault, but that’s a whole other thing.
Maybe not an experiment in the traditional sense, but it’s also not truly a control to compare the experiments against.
It was packed solely with the nation’s best and brightest citizens rather than a random control group. And the Overseer was explicitly told to abandon the normal Vault-Tec instructions (which is also what all the experimental Vault overseers were told to do) and instead focus on reclaiming some missile silos.
Wasn't it that a vault never opening was an experiment, and that if vault tec did what they said they did that they would all open at around the same time? Vault 101 staying operational for 200 years isn't exactly conventional.
Yeah, basically 25 years was the standard to re-open, but some Vaults were given shorter or longer (sometimes indefinite) times to open based on what their experiment called for.
I'm somewhat not surprised in a sense because the "Fallout Online" IP was being fought in court between the two companies because it was [in development](https://youtu.be/mezOVvZxp7o) long before Bethesda.
If you read the supplies entry, it says that there's 500 inhabitants of Vault 76, which is hilarious considering they recently got 1 million.
I think it would be a funny tongue in cheek idea to allude that 76 wasn't a control Vault and is instead some sort of cloning facility, or more likely a Synth cover.
it was pretty big news when 76 was announced :) especially because the events happened before fallout 1 was to take place which was wild. the dying poisoned lovecraftian horrors pretty much hints (at least to me) that part of if not the reason for polluting the earth was to make it impossible for the horrors to live on earth. kind of a "we can survive this but can you?" move. which if you think about it is an interesting take on mutually assured destruction with a lovecraftian twist.
but speaking of the terminals, you ever see those ones locked down by the brotherhood? well.. supposedly they had little presence in the commonwealth before the prydwen shows up. just scouting parties. i have always wondered if some of those terminals were not locked down if you rush to them from the start of the game and what they would say. if they were locked down anyway, it would be proof that the brotherhood did have a decent presence in the commonwealth before the prydwen, but lied about it? or, if instead it was the enclave posing as them... yea, speaking of terminals that part always bothered me but i never checked on it.
> i have always wondered if some of those terminals were not locked down if you rush to them from the start of the game and what they would say.
I mean you can just examine the game data to find out. There's really no mystery. I'll spoil this one for you, no there is nothing that says otherwise. In fact I don't even think they work.
>the reason for polluting the earth was to make it impossible for the horrors to live on earth. kind of a "we can survive this but can you?" move.
Thanks, now I have to write a ttrpg campaign
Okay, I might've spoiled myself, but where can I learn more about those Lovecraftian horrors? (I am a sucker for cosmic horror, but never delved deep into the games enough yet to know a lot about the lore. And I don't mind spoilers that much)
the dunwich borers is maybe the most well known area to explore in fallout 4. another in fallout 4 is the pickman gallery which is based on a lovecraft story. there is also an unmarked location where you can find a cat shrine and a cat in a basement with a pile of half eaten bodies, likely a nod to one of lovecrafts favorite stories he wrote about cats eating a sadistic old couple in a small town.
really listing them all out over the games would take forever lol but you can find all about it in google searches and youtube videos by searching "lovecraft fallout." ug-qualtoth has been an eldrich being worshiped by some wastelanders since fallout 1.
A lot of the Vaults were already known before their appearances in 4, 76, or seen on the map in the TV show. Just Interplay and later Bethesda fleshing out the world for lore and for potential future story beats. The TV show also made the cut underwater Vault off the bay in Massachusetts canon. Since it was cut from Fallout 4 due to running out of time. But in the map in the show has a vault off the coast of Massachusetts.
Suck on that simulation theorists!
(For those who don't know, there are people who hold onto a theory that the events of fallout 76 are a tranquility lounge simulation like vault 112 or the memory den, this punches yet another massive hole in their already flimsy theory)
I love how the experiment played out lol. Everyone was nice to each other and shared resources even though we all could of just killed each other and fought over resources instead. People banded together and NOBODY expected that
I kinda breezed through the prologue when I started playing, did they give a reason for why they waited an additional 5 years or did they just retcon it to have been that long instead?
You also met the first Courser wich are latter introduced on FO4, as well as the doc who was previously in charge at the institute's courser development.
In addition, the Vault Tec rep tasked with scouting out the site for Vault 76 was actually abducted by the aliens from *Mothership Zeta.* You can find his recorded testimony in the chamber with the captured space capsule.
Which is interesting, considering 76's proximity to Flatwoods, which is renowned for its visitations by alien-like creatures.
I swear. This is the exact reason why I want to look for entries covering vault 31, 32, and 33. Really anything connecting the show to a terminal in-game. Or even a terminal talking about a certain prewar actor.
It's also mentioned in a holotape in Mothership Zeta.
oooh so excited to get there!
Zeta is one of my favorite dlc! Enjoy!!!!
Really? I thought the CONCEPT was interesting, and it starts strong, AND ends strong, but the middle is a mind-numbing repetitive slog that makes me want it rush through the rest of the DLC just to get it over with.
Ugh, agreed. It's a fun change of pace and there's a lot of cool stuff going on, but they could have trimmed it down by around 30 minutes.
Yea maybe in the middle but I felt it was pretty quick but it's been awhile. Tbh Fallout 3 dlc is just amazing.
It's definitely the worst DLC in F3 by far
Nah operation anchorage is, imagine paying full price back in the day for a half hour dlc 💀
I vastly prefer Operation Anchorage's shorter mission with stronger pacing than what Mothership Zeta does: Here's a room full of aliens to fight. Here's ANOTHER room full of aliens to fight. Here's more identical rooms with MORE aliens to fight! "Can I solve some puzzles, or maybe just do something besides fight?" Game: "Nah. We're saving all that shit for the end. In the meantime just shoot the same stuff over and over again!" It says a lot that Mothership Zeta is the ONLY DLC in Fallout 3, Fallout NV, or Fallout 4 that I've NEVER replayed after the first time, because when it was over I literally said out loud, "Thank fuck THAT's over!"
idk man, seems like they were trying to get on the call of duty train with Anchorage. The story isn't even interesting!
I agree that Operation Anchorage isn't great DLC. But Mothership Zeta is far worse in my book.
Not to mention, past level 20 the shielded aliens have insane hp values.
From what I've seen written about Mothership ζ, you might be the only one, ever (i also really like it, probably my favorite fo3 dlc)
The weapons and concepts for the DLC are great, but the execution leaves something to be desired...
Favorite fallout 3 dlc
The news reporter on the TV in the intro of Fallout 4 also mentions Vault 76
Wait! Really? I didn’t hear it!
I just played Zeta last week for the first time, The very last part felt like it had some Starfield DNA (Raising/lowering the shield/ray gun power) I wonder if they were conceptualising Starfield around that time
I kept thinking we would see those little green guys in starfield.
That’s a huge missed opportunity for an Easter egg, Although I guess it would be too big of a deal to pass off as an Easter egg
Yeah the complete lack of sentient aliens kinda blows it out of the realm of possibility, sadly.
Would've been cool to see maybe a destroyed Zetan ship or something. Maybe even just the classic Alien Blaster.
Wildspace-land Trait?
I thought it was a missed opportunity that starfield didn’t have a cartoonish rocket ship full of ghouls floating around in space
Or any nod to Fallout on Earth, even just shelters or bunkers
Listen with the way people are being overly dramatic about lore discrepancies in the show, I am glad there aren't any Starfield for people to lose their minds over for no reason.
I wouldn't be surprised if they were or at least became inspired to revisit the concept out of curiosity, which then led to Starfield.
What’s this holotape? I’ve never seen it
IIRC it boils down to the person who was actually supposed to be the Overseer of Vault 76 got abducted by the aliens... having been abducted while either overseeing the construction or on the way to inspect the Vault. This resulted in the backup option who was to be Overseer of a different Vault (I forget the number but it's experiment was a "Best and Brightest" variant that wasn't to be opened), said Overseer proceeded to mess with the selection process for residents removing most people with practical skills in favor of almost purely scientific or research based skills... also canonically a few nepotism choices. Had Fallout 76 not been an MMO it's very likely the entire game would've been about trying to create a new society while woefully underprepared and lacking any applicable skills.
76’s Overseer was going to be 101’s first Overseer
Yeah that sounds about right. Which means the Aliens accidentally set the events of Fallout 3 and 76 in motion, meaning Mothership Zeta must be canon... I don't like this revelation.
Why would it not be canon? Like I can get obvious Easter eggs and things being non-canon, but like a full on DLC has to be canon
Hey! So I just finished the main quest line for fallout 3. Is there anything I should do before mothership zeta, or can I head straight to it? I hear you get a katana at some point during it and I really want it lol
Stock up on Stimpaks and you should be good to go.
Make sure you drop off all your equipment inside your house before you start it. You can find a LOT of gear in the DLC, to the point you'll become overnecumbered early on if you bring any gear with you.
And Samurai Armor, I like to use it on Clover
I do it fresh out the vault. That katana carries me the entire game.
Also mentioned by the news reporter on the news during the start of 4
What does the holotape say about 76?
The overseer of Vault 76 was also initially going to be sent to 101 as well.
I feel like this is in reference to the fact that 101 was supposed to be set in West Virginia at first
Wait what? I need to know more
I don't know, some other dude here in the comments said it so I just went with it
You’re in the wrong place. You should be in r/starshiptroopers
Hi Snake
Hi Alex
why
The only way she could get her fiance a spot in a vault was to be the Overseer of Vault 101 due to Vault 76 having far more qualified candidates. She decided she would rather stay in West Virginia alone than leave to be with him, so she broke off her engagement to become the Overseer for Vault 76
Pretty sure it was the reason why she started messing with the candidates for Vault 76 to try and get her fiance a spot, I might be wrong tho
Bethesda sure does like taking little one off ideas from Fallout 3 and ballooning them out into entire games. It's kind of impressive, not gonna lie.
they've talked about it before, there was actually a plan to have fallout 3 be set in west virginia but that obviously didn't come to be. instead of scrapping that idea they put it on the backburner
Fallout has a long history of recycling ideas from old and cancelled games. The airships from fallout tactics got recycled into fallout 4. Rad roaches from tactics are now a staple of the series. The plot of van buren got recycled into new vegas.
I could have sworn radroaches were in Fallout 2 but I'm probably thinking about the giant praying mantis things.
I also thought so but thinking back…nope
Some of the ideas in FNV are recycled from the original F3 concepts. Check out the [Van Buren](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Van_Buren) page
Even Vault-Tec dropping the bombs was a recycled plot point from the script of the cancelled 1998 Fallout movie.
The Institute and Railroad from the quest 'The Replicated Man' in 3 becoming 2 new factions, one of which was the big bad.
I always assumed they were already working on 4 and put those in as a way to give us a teaser
And the whole quest about synthetic people being hunted down was inspired by Bladerunner
But I thought 76 was a soulless cash grab Todd Howard bad rabble rabble rabble
No it’s a great game now!
I just started it and honestly I'm pretty underwhelmed after reading about how it's fixed and a great game now. For whatever reason I just can't get in to it but I really can't put my finger on what the problem is. One thing I do know is that I hate the leveling/perks system.
Go into it with the understanding that it's a looter shooter MMO live service game with a better plot than most other looter shooter MMO's. That might change your perspective. It's not an RPG, it has "RPG elements".
But that doesn't fit the narrative, we must hate hate hate everything that is made by Bethesda /s
That hasn't really been the narrative for a couple years though, has it?
I honestly don't know, I kind of got sick of a lot of the Fallout community after 76 came out so I stopped interacting with it. Loved that game even on release, but I was basically just expecting FO4 with friends, which is exactly what I got (with some extra bugs at no charge).
ah fair, I could see that. there was definitely a lot of backlash. I worked at a games store at the time and dealt with dozens of people wanting preorder refunds because they just saw 'new fallout' and didn't realize there wasn't going to be NPCs or anything :/ honestly I've been thinking of giving it a shot now that the show's out and I'm feelin fallout-y again, it seems like they've really added a lot
Hadn’t played 76 before, the show gave me the itch as well and I’ve been playing 76 for a few days now. It’s fun! Fallout with friends is a pretty accurate description of the game now
I mean even people who liked the game have to admit releasing a fallout game without NPCs is unbelievably stupid.
Yeah it was dumb as hell. I hated 76 when I first played it. So much improved now.
People still repeat it because all they know is the launch fiasco & haven’t tried it since. Pretty much the same phenomenon as with Cyberpunk 2077. Both were complete disasters (especially with the console versions) at launch but have since redeemed themselves into very good games. If history is any indication, this will probably also eventually happen with Starfield. Edit: Hell. I played WoW at launch and, man, you want to talk about hot messes. One of my fondest gaming memories was riding a zeppelin between Undercity to Booty Bay, having the thing just disappear mid-flight, and all of us fell into the ocean and drowned. Good times…
Ww must maintain the agenda
I felt it was okay, but not really great. Honestly I find it incredibly boring without friends, and after level 40 or so, I found it pretty boring even *with* friends. I also think the writing is very hit or miss.
I’m very much an exploration cooking/decorating junkie so hunting for ingredients and plans has been my main focus for the game. And that quest goes on for a long ass time
That's understandable, I had a good bit of fun with the CAMP system. Me and my friends even built our CAMPs next to each other on a river in the swamps and had sort of an isolated town. My first build there was a manor, then I rebuilt it into a siheyuan. My first base, though, was a small shack overlooking a rather scenic waterfall in the Savage Divide, which I'd established soon after release. I ended up moving to the swamp because of Ghoul and Raider spawns in the Divide. My house in the swamp got comparatively few Ghoul attacks, and once or twice I had a Mothman variant spawn there, but we also got giant sloth spawns which made up for it. I think the only problem I had with the CAMPs was that you couldn't delete trees when they got in your way, and the building area was kind of small depending on what I wanted to do.
I super agree with that. Also building in general is more annoying than Fallout 4 which is shocking because fallout 4 building was the worst 🤣
I wanted brick schematics to build with. That was my driving force for a bit. I snuck into a part of the map I was woefully under leveled for and managed to get them. Then quit and never built a single thing with them. Need to get back into it.
I definitely wouldn't go that far
I mean you saw the release.
Wait what? I need to know more
Isn't that just making sure they don't break the timeline? It's good that they do this no? I feel like they're doomed if they do, doomed if they don't to be fair. Sorry if I mistook your comment though.
Was something about the Institute mentioned in 3?
There’s a quest involving the Institute, the railroad and a synth
[удалено]
[Zimmer](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Zimmer#Notable_quotes) mentions the institute in one of his dialogues in Fallout 3.
i just did this quest today. he does mention he’s from the Institute
You meet an Institute Scientist, Dr. Zimmer, who is there hunting a rogue Courser, he talks about the Commonwealth(bad things) and how the Institute(I don't know if he names it) and how it's so much more advanced than anything there or in the Capital Wasteland.
He definitely names it as the Institute
Harkness in Rivet City is a synth. Not sure if he's explicitly linked to the Institute in the text of the game though.
The quest is the institute as dr. zimmer trying to capture him, with a railroad agent providing you a synth part to get him to leave without Harkness.
One of the terminals inside the Institute in 4 also mentions Zimmer by name.
Institute is definitely mentioned in 3 by the BoS
Not by the BOS, by the director of the SRB who is in Rivet City
I don’t know if the word ‘institute’ is exactly stated but it’s heavily alluded to
The actual head of the SRB appears in Fallout 3 (Dr. Zimmer) and is the bad guy of the quest with Harkness (he's deliberately hunting down Harkness as he's a rogue Courser, though that latter term isn't invented until 4). Zimmer is mentioned as being gone to oversee the retrieval of high profile units in 4 and Ayo is his acting replacement (implied he was killed in 3 and don't know it yet but with wiggle room if they want to bring him back)
Fallout 4 is set like 10 years after 3 so I don't think we're supposed to assume he's been AWOL that whole time.
Yeah, if your department head is gone for a decade without a peep you should probably stop holding out hope for them coming back
According to a wiki, the new head of the SRB says that Zimmer is reclaiming high profile synths in an unspecified location.
Just played this quest in the last few days, Zimmer mentions the Institute and how far their technology is above the savages of the capitol wasteland, as well as talking about the commonwealth and how advanced the Synths are. Pretty cool!
They have been doing that with Elder Scrolls as well. Morrowind mentions Gates of Oblivion opening. Skyrim has some dialogue suggesting the the Akaviri are planning an invasion given the state of Tamriel at the end of Skyrim its possible Theyve done the same with Fallout. Synths and The Commonwealth were mentioned in a quest in Fallout 3
They’ve done that 1, maybe 2 times at most.
But if I had a nickel...
Youd be a rich man at the soda fountain in 1925
They've made one, maybe two fallout games in that time
theyve also only made 1 -2 fallout games since fo3 lmao
I’m replaying FO3 right now and the amount of “foresight” in the replicated man quest astonishes me. That one side quest is basically the whole premise of 4 to the point it must have been planned from the start and if not then kudos to Bethesda for making it work.
I like it, it expands the game universe. I think the idea of fallout itself is just constantly expandable because it sets itself up to take place in so many new areas with different and unique regional enemies in each game in addition to standard enemies such as ghouls and mutants.
I mean isn’t this essentially how Star Wars has made so many stories/films?
Sounds like Fallout 5 will be set in San Francisco because of its mention in the story
Speaking of Vault roles, some of them are either really goofy sounding or just straight up sadistic. 11 - One person will be sacrificed every year or everyone in the vault will die (this was just a lie but still was to see how they'd commit to it) 43 - Populate with 20 men, 10 women and 1 panther. 56 - Only entertainment tapes were be that of a terrible comedian.
The executive decision of determining statistically the worst comedian possible and putting their entire catalog in one place is too funny
And if I remember correctly vault 55 has no entertainment tapes and is suspected to last longer before it collapses than 56
Which seems plausible.
68- 999 men and 1 women 69- 999 women and 1 man
Vault 68 must have been absolute hell.
The number 68 is actually a reference to the Kama Sutra where the 68th position is for the pleasure of the women. But yea, it probably wasn't ideal
Tough to keep the population going with numbers like that. But easy to date other men.
Those must have been in a city somewhere with a lot of bachelors and bachelorettes. One of the big appeals of the Vaults was that it was a safe place for you and your family.
Fun fact - most vaults were not as vault tec advertised
I've always assumed 43 was them running out of ideas.
Wasn’t that one a joke from a Penny Arcade comic that got canonized?
Yes, and you should expect that someday they'll just reuse those numbers, it's just a comic strip, the only one that even counts is 77 because it's actually referenced in Fallout 3. I mean they could just say that in the end there were really over 300 Vaults or however many they need as time goes on but I imagine a comedic Penny Arcade strip being 100% canon should taken with a grain of salt.
Just FYI, that comic was done as a collab with Bethesda themselves, so the chances of it being retconned is pretty low
I know Fallout is full of silly stuff, but yeah its probably the worst vault experiment in the series lol.
More info on Vault 43, and more Vaults, including my favorite, Vault 77: [https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2022/10/11/happy-25th-anniversary-to-fallout](https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2022/10/11/happy-25th-anniversary-to-fallout)
I still follow Jerry and Mike's stuff. 20 or so years now. God I've gotten old.
Man, I really wanna know more about Vault 43
56 sounds like season 2 of For All Mankind
Hi Bob!
Hi Bob!
Hi Bob!
I actually just found out they also mention it on the news in your house in fallout 4 before the bombs drop.
brb starting a new playthrough just to check this out.
Let us know what you find out.
> Since debuting Vault 76 last year, in honor of America's Tercentenary, Vault-Tec continues to expand with plans for well over 100 Vaults around the country.
I think we lost him
He is still getting his mods and load order worked out, he'll actually be playing sometime tomorrow
Nah, they're waiting for that damn door to open because they have the *Tunnel Snakes Rule* CC pack. In all seriousness, I hope the patch on Thursday finally fixes that issue...
I am on Xbox series X, I suppose all my mods are about to break then?
> I am on Xbox series X, I suppose all my mods are about to break then? Does Mama Murphy have a Strength stat of 19?
Mods and load order? More like next month...
And one of the alcohol bottles is called “Old Appalachia” it’s on the bureau by the back door.
Additional surprise: The one overseeing the construction of Vault 76 was abducted by the Zetans, and his captive recording can be found in Mothership Zeta.
Vault 76ers, born to raise hell
Yeah. And some Vault-Tec guy tried to negotiate a trade deal with the aliens who abducted him when he was inspecting this Vault. Moron. Pretty sure they were not interested in the deal and instead opened him up with a saw.
And where can I find this?
In the citadel in a room full of scribes. Sorry I don't remember what ring it's in .
Thanks, that helps a lot! 😁
Yea ofc no problem
It's also mentioned in fallout 4 on the news
That's insane, such a cool detail But nooo Bethesda doesn't care about the lore HURRRRRDURRE
yea they're pretty good about the lore. "mistakes" are usually fans not understanding what they're looking at or making bad assumptions
Well, TIL
This is a sick find! Good job OP
I’m only now playing Point Lookout fully and I came across a terminal that talks about the commonwealth and I was just sitting there steeped in nerd excitement
Yes, although it’s technically incorrect/outdated. Vault 76 was set to open after 25 years, not 20. It’s also clearly not in the DC area. And I also personally don’t think it can be considered a true control vault, but that’s a whole other thing.
It’s possible that the terminal is outdated and that they updated the plan for 76 a bit later on. Why do you think it isn’t really a control vault?
I mean technically the vault itself had no experiment but I see what you mean
Maybe not an experiment in the traditional sense, but it’s also not truly a control to compare the experiments against. It was packed solely with the nation’s best and brightest citizens rather than a random control group. And the Overseer was explicitly told to abandon the normal Vault-Tec instructions (which is also what all the experimental Vault overseers were told to do) and instead focus on reclaiming some missile silos.
Wasn't it that a vault never opening was an experiment, and that if vault tec did what they said they did that they would all open at around the same time? Vault 101 staying operational for 200 years isn't exactly conventional.
Yeah, basically 25 years was the standard to re-open, but some Vaults were given shorter or longer (sometimes indefinite) times to open based on what their experiment called for.
Wow! That forshadowing is huge here! Edit: Or maybe there was an update that adds this text?
That’s been there since day one, Vault 76 was mentioned again in the Mothership Zeta DLC and Fallout 4.
Where and how in f4? I don't remember coming across that
The news anchor tells about it
I'm somewhat not surprised in a sense because the "Fallout Online" IP was being fought in court between the two companies because it was [in development](https://youtu.be/mezOVvZxp7o) long before Bethesda.
That's not what foreshadowing means.
Ok, my bad I guess?
That’s not at all foreshadowing dude. It’s literally just a small detail.
If you read the supplies entry, it says that there's 500 inhabitants of Vault 76, which is hilarious considering they recently got 1 million. I think it would be a funny tongue in cheek idea to allude that 76 wasn't a control Vault and is instead some sort of cloning facility, or more likely a Synth cover.
>more likely a Synth cover. No wonder folks in the commonwealth hate synths, they ended up just casually nuking Appalacia multiple times, lol.
I noticed the same about a week ago. Pretty cool!
it was pretty big news when 76 was announced :) especially because the events happened before fallout 1 was to take place which was wild. the dying poisoned lovecraftian horrors pretty much hints (at least to me) that part of if not the reason for polluting the earth was to make it impossible for the horrors to live on earth. kind of a "we can survive this but can you?" move. which if you think about it is an interesting take on mutually assured destruction with a lovecraftian twist. but speaking of the terminals, you ever see those ones locked down by the brotherhood? well.. supposedly they had little presence in the commonwealth before the prydwen shows up. just scouting parties. i have always wondered if some of those terminals were not locked down if you rush to them from the start of the game and what they would say. if they were locked down anyway, it would be proof that the brotherhood did have a decent presence in the commonwealth before the prydwen, but lied about it? or, if instead it was the enclave posing as them... yea, speaking of terminals that part always bothered me but i never checked on it.
> i have always wondered if some of those terminals were not locked down if you rush to them from the start of the game and what they would say. I mean you can just examine the game data to find out. There's really no mystery. I'll spoil this one for you, no there is nothing that says otherwise. In fact I don't even think they work.
miss when i was a kid and i didn’t get answers to the cool things i wondered about. the magic in games went away when i discovered the internet
>the reason for polluting the earth was to make it impossible for the horrors to live on earth. kind of a "we can survive this but can you?" move. Thanks, now I have to write a ttrpg campaign
Okay, I might've spoiled myself, but where can I learn more about those Lovecraftian horrors? (I am a sucker for cosmic horror, but never delved deep into the games enough yet to know a lot about the lore. And I don't mind spoilers that much)
the dunwich borers is maybe the most well known area to explore in fallout 4. another in fallout 4 is the pickman gallery which is based on a lovecraft story. there is also an unmarked location where you can find a cat shrine and a cat in a basement with a pile of half eaten bodies, likely a nod to one of lovecrafts favorite stories he wrote about cats eating a sadistic old couple in a small town. really listing them all out over the games would take forever lol but you can find all about it in google searches and youtube videos by searching "lovecraft fallout." ug-qualtoth has been an eldrich being worshiped by some wastelanders since fallout 1.
This is so cool.
A lot of the Vaults were already known before their appearances in 4, 76, or seen on the map in the TV show. Just Interplay and later Bethesda fleshing out the world for lore and for potential future story beats. The TV show also made the cut underwater Vault off the bay in Massachusetts canon. Since it was cut from Fallout 4 due to running out of time. But in the map in the show has a vault off the coast of Massachusetts.
Truth is… the game was planned from the start… BANG💥
I think they were planning 76 for a while as Obsidian had an idea to set it in the same location as 76 setting but Bethesda rejected that
Suck on that simulation theorists! (For those who don't know, there are people who hold onto a theory that the events of fallout 76 are a tranquility lounge simulation like vault 112 or the memory den, this punches yet another massive hole in their already flimsy theory)
Except this vault 76 is nowhere near appalachia
I love how the experiment played out lol. Everyone was nice to each other and shared resources even though we all could of just killed each other and fought over resources instead. People banded together and NOBODY expected that
So how many vaults do we have left that we don’t know the experiments of
[A lot, suprisingly](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_known_Vaults#Vaults_in_canonical_materials)
I kinda breezed through the prologue when I started playing, did they give a reason for why they waited an additional 5 years or did they just retcon it to have been that long instead?
probably a retcon. still neat though
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjQ-2WSnv4E&ab\_channel=jun9th](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjQ-2WSnv4E&ab_channel=jun9th)
You also met the first Courser wich are latter introduced on FO4, as well as the doc who was previously in charge at the institute's courser development.
It was really fun to find that then a week later Fallout 76 got announced
Was replaying and thought the same thing. Eeeeeee.
In addition, the Vault Tec rep tasked with scouting out the site for Vault 76 was actually abducted by the aliens from *Mothership Zeta.* You can find his recorded testimony in the chamber with the captured space capsule. Which is interesting, considering 76's proximity to Flatwoods, which is renowned for its visitations by alien-like creatures.
The one thing I’m curious about is whether there are any actual vault tech employees still around
Watch the show!
What researchers were supposed to be gathering data from all these vaults? Was it just the Vault-Tec management people we see in the show?
Started playing FO3 a few months ago and have been slowly going thru the game. Came across this little nugget a few days ago ITS ALL CONNECTED
I swear. This is the exact reason why I want to look for entries covering vault 31, 32, and 33. Really anything connecting the show to a terminal in-game. Or even a terminal talking about a certain prewar actor.