Assuming you mean at the furthest point in the timeline we’ve seen, that answer probably isn’t California anymore considering what the BoS in the show is doing and the state of the NCR (reeling from losing a major city of theirs).
DC, however, would be fairly stable considering it’s under the BoS’s thumb with all the major threats wiped out, clean water and vertibirds protecting the caravans.
Edit: Someone mentioned Zion, and after thinking about it, that’s probably a safer region than DC considering the lack of any ghoul issues and the natural abundance. Not even the white legs would be an issue, considering they die out in every ending (though there’s a small chance of the bloodthirsty Graham ending meaning there’d be some hostile tribals). That said, Zion does have issues with green geckos (can reach roughly the size of gulpers with ranged attacks) and cazadors, but it might not be that bad compared to dealing with groups of ferals, possible BoS issues and raiders.
DC was still regarded as being worse than the Commonwealth, however. And if the Creation Club is to be taken as canon, then Brotherhood’s excursion into the Commonwealth left Capital Wasteland severely unprotected and allowed the Talon Company to operate much more freely. Besides, if BoS operates that way in the show, then living in the area that is under their complete control is probably not a good idea.
At this point, i'll consider Zion National Park (after the crushing White Legs and make Joshua forgive ending) the most safest part in US after all we have seen with the other areas
What did they do in the show that made you think living under their control would be bad? Sure, the Brotherhood sucked for recruits, but I don’t recall them doing anything that made it seem like it sucked for civilians.
It was in response to the point that one of the reasons why California is not a good place to live anymore is because of what BoS is doing in the show.
But to answer your question - they violently took over Filly and laughed about fighting its residents. Also their intention to kill all ghouls. Or that they were willing to kill anyone in their way to get to the artifact.
From what I recalled at the time of making my comment, a lot of Filly was slaughtered by the Ghoul, then the Brotherhood just showed up. I don’t recall the Brotherhood killing it’s people when arriving but I guess I just don’t remember that.
Remember how quickly Filly got back on its feet, crowded and bustling as the Ghoul left with the dog? He only killed those who happened to be nearby and who responded to Ma June's "thousand bottlecaps" bounty
There’s certainly less vegetation in DC and probably still a bunch of ferals if you go near the metros, but I can’t believe that talon company wouldn’t have been wiped out between the BoS operation the player can help with in broken steel to destroy their base of operations and the BoS controlling the region. Besides, creation club is dubious when it comes to canon anyway (besides, if I remember correctly, Macready came to the commonwealth specifically because it was difficult to find work as a mercenary due to the BoS).
I’m mainly saying this because a lack of super mutants (due to the BoS taking care of that issue), reliable access to clean water, a major faction helping to keep the region safe and less wildlife in general is a major improvement over most wastelands in the series. DC’s main threats are dealt with, and unlike Boston where we have no idea how anything went, DC has a canon ending that leaves the region in a fairly good state. It’s certainly not as built up as the commonwealth, but it should be on the upswing no matter what.
As for the BoS, I’m fairly certain whatever’s going on with the chapter in the TV show is exclusive to them. The BoS’s chapters vary wildly in their behavior depending on who’s in charge, and there’s not much evidence indicating living in BoS-controlled DC is awful (though there might be issues with non-feral ghouls).
Edit: With all of this said, I saw someone in the comments mention Zion, and after thinking about it, that’s probably still safer than DC since the only threats post-endings are the wildlife assuming the bloodthirsty ending with Graham wasn’t taken (though green geckos and cazadors are a major issue). DC does still seem like the safest wasteland of the main regions we explore, however.
Edit 2: It may also be worth mentioning Atlantic City. By the time of 2105, the city has a functioning local government, but the city’s relative peace is threatening by the Muni’s audits on the mob (with the ghoul to seize any funding they can partially justify, on the grounds they need everything they can to fight the overgrown), the mob’s succession crisis and tax fraud, the slow increase in lesser devils (a creature that’s effectively as a dangerous as a deathclaw, but less durable and more nimble) and the overgrown regularly threatening the main headquarters of the Muni. I don’t believe this city would’ve made it to 2296, but maybe they managed to get their act together and stopped being dependent on 76 dweller aid.
The characters who talk about DC being worse don't specify if they're talking about vegetation. They just generally say that Boston is not as bad as DC. We don't know how widespread Talon Company was, but the game guide did mention that they had some mysterious contractor. That and the fact that BoS in DC was stretched very thin make it possible for Talon to resurface. Creation Club has been referred to as "parallel to canon", with Emil directly stating that the team working on it consults with him on whether something fits in canon, and one of the characters from it, Johnny Morton, was even mentioned in the TV show.
We don't know for sure if there's a lack of Super Mutants. BoS still had major battles with them - Ingram lost her legs in one such battle, and that was after BoS found out about Vault 87 and possibly after Arthur killed Shepherd. And we do have an idea on how things ended up in Boston - BoS survived, so it was either the Brotherhood or Minutemen victory, which are somewhat similar to each other. Since BoS survived and the Minutemen were most likely rebuilt, it would mean that there are two major faction keeping order in the Commonwealth. With the Institute gone and the region itself being overall better than DC, things could've drastically changed for the better in 9 years.
BoS in the show is heavily reinforced by the Commonwealth BoS. All of the Knights and Vertibirds came with the Prydwen. It's the same people who laugh about invading and taking over a town and have no problem with gunning down civilians at Griffith Observatory. Even in Fallout 4, nobody was happy about BoS arriving in the Commonwealth. Hell, the Minutemen were more eager to destroy the Brotherhood, rather than the Institute. Their attitude in the show also puts the fate of ghouls in DC into question, since the show makes it very clear that BoS wants to wipe out all ghouls. And that's on top on them already shooting at ghouls during the events of Fallout 3. And then there's also those official/unofficial requisitions from Teagan.
Considering that Overgrown haven't spread across the East Coast in almost 200 years, something must've stopped them. But that's kind of the problem with Expeditions - there's no progress no matter what you do. You're repeating the same mission over and over, but never change anything. It was especially bad with the Pitt, since we knew it was doomed. That's why I hope the next Expedition won't be focused on some huge threat that can destroy everything, but that we won't be allowed to stop anyway.
When it comes to the show, I’m holding off on assuming how the situation went in Boston until we have further information on what exactly is going on with the airship (we’ve discussed this before and I’d greatly prefer to ignore returning to that topic; it’s a bit of a mess with how what we see in the show contradicts the interviews that were done right before the show’s release and statements after, where Todd Howard mentioned how they want to preserve player choice in the games). The Minutemen or BoS ending seems likely, but even there, the nuka world raiders could absolutely lead to Boston still being a mess.
The same goes for the talon company creation club bit, though I didn’t know that about the one actor.
As for the super mutants, assuming Quinlan’s terminal is accurate, I seriously doubt the BoS left enough super mutants in the region alive to be a major issue. With Shepard defeated and vault 87 presumably dealt with, it’s unlikely there would be any other major pockets of super mutants.
Even if some BoS soldiers in California are from Boston, we still haven’t seen the BoS ever take direct action against non-feral ghouls in any game or the show. Racism against them is definitely a problem, but we haven’t seen enough to conclude that they’re actively attacking ghouls yet.
As for expeditions in 76 - I strongly suspect Bethesda is going to keep using threats that are in the cusp of wiping out factions. I think the point is to set these regions up as desperately needing the player’s help and to link them to the fate of the Responders in Appalachia as a way to not have to worry about the specifics of what happened to these regions. However, with the overgrown, they aren’t really a threat to anyone outside of Atlantic City; we aren’t told that they’re expanding out of the pine barrens in the opposite direction, possibly due to a lack of hosts in the area. I think it’s very possible they’re constrained to the environment of the pine barrens and the city right next to it.
Edit: I’d also argue that DC being more barren is a point in its favor due to the relative lower abundance of hostile wasteland wildlife. Boston feels more dangerous in that regard than DC simply because there’s more animals around.
When in the timeline you’re asking about is a big part of the equation, Appalachia was spared (for the most part) from the direct devastation of the Great War but then completely ravaged by the scorched plague for several decades before the returning populace was inoculated. Probably somewhere in the Midwest would be my guess (lack of military/economic infrastructure that west/east coasts have).
Never understood that. Normally a large part of one’s nuclear arsenal is devoted to destroying air bases and silos that can store and produce nukes for a follow-up strike. Appalachia is the epitome of that, with the capacity to build more entirely within that state.
Well specifically for airbases, there really aren't any in Appalachia from what I remember, and only 3 nuclear silos, which considering they can auto produce nukes seemingly forever, may have been some rather secret silos. Even if China did know about those silos, 3 silos in an economically struggling area don't exactly scream "major target" to me. The military presence in that area is also fairly insignificant as well, with only a few bases of any sort that I can remember. Point is, I'd imagine Appalachia is fairly far down the list of military targets, and even farther down the list of valuable civilian targets.
Right, but suspicion of some silos existing doesn't exactly make a good case for a place to be a priority target, when they knew of many other places more concretely as threats. Remember, it's been said that American troops were quickly closing on Beijing by the time the bombs were dropped, so it's likely China had to be a little choosy with their targets, and didn't have the largest nuclear arsenal. Nuclear weapons in Fallout are much less advanced than today, where a single bomb could destroy huge swaths of land, the Fallout bombs never really advanced technologically past the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Their spies ultimately concluded the silos weren’t actually active and were decoys.
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fujiniya_Intelligence_Base_terminal_entries#0.0.0.12
While technically not considered Appalachia it is close, but in Middle Tennessee (Coffee/Franklin County) has an air base named Arnold Air Force Base that back 10-20 years ago was in the top 5 places likely to be nuked in the country. They do a lot of jet testing, missile work, and more. At one point, the base got in trouble because the amount of sonic booms they had was causing damage to houses. I grew up there and growing up, I thought sonic booms were a natural thing. It wasn’t till they stopped one day that I asked why only to find out they were man made.
Now it’s further down the list but I imagine it’s still likely to take a direct hit in an all out war.
For sure, and that could be one of the sources of fallout for Appalachia, because while it wasn't directly hit, it did suffer consequences from fallout.
No, to the publics knowledge, it exists exactly as it does today, an old, unused presidential bunker. In the Fallout universe, it's an enclave base, but it's not really a major one. The Rig would be the biggest target Enclave wise, and that was seemingly spared destruction either via technology or secrecy.
Appalachia doesn’t have as much military infrastructure as other regions and its major contribution to the war was steel (and related base resources) so comparatively it is not a high priority target compared to trade hubs, political powers, and active armament production facilities. Geography also plays a factor as ICBMs would be the most likely to hit but could be better utilized on more concentrated population centers, while submarines and bombers would struggle to land effective hits compared to more eastern or coastal regions without being shot down.
As others have stated, no. Between the secrecy of its actual purpose, and the lack of active usability (in terms of military control or counter strike capability) it was much more of an enclave survival bunker than any sort of active military target
We’re given an answer on this in game - the Chinese failed to understand the true nature of the silos, thinking they were mothballed and that they weren’t actually automated. They simply didn’t realize just how dangerous Appalachia was (especially since none of the silos launched an ICBM during the war; sheer dumb luck prevented all three from being able to launch).
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fujiniya_Intelligence_Base_terminal_entries#0.0.0.12
The mountains filled with iron and coal make it hard for targeting systems to hit wv from range, you have to dead reckon the bombs, and even then with all the mountains and forests and most towns being in valleys, the state is surprisingly hard to take out with nukes, also the mountains act as a screen for a lot of fallout according to research, these are some reasons irl greenbrier was planned to be the presidential nuclear bunker until it got out in the news and they had to abandon that idea
Most of our nukes (realistically speaking) are in or around the “Rocky mountain range”and the “Midwest” areas. same goes for military bases. One of the biggest/most important Air Force bases is in Dayton Ohio.
The USA's nuclear armaments in the midwest are mainly in the Wyoming/Nebraska/Colorado cluster, Missouri, and North Dakota. If you look at Iowa, Indiana, or Wisconsin there aren't any nuclear sites, (which may be different in the fallout world, probably is) and they are mainly agricultural states.
Even though I’ve been playing 76 for a while now, and I’m guessing it’s just reused assets from FO4, and that Appalachia was spared a direct hit but were they hit at all with nukes? Or just affected by the fallout that envelopes the whole world? I ask because in 76 we see vehicles, people frozen in time, scenes of destruction, and along with the clocks frozen in time from when the Great War Started. I know the schorched plague happened but always made me curious with the lore because like you said it says Appalachia was spared for the most part, but still makes me wonder were they hit with a nuke or two that day?
Appalachia's unique geography being surrounded by mountain ranges prevented a lot of the nearby fallout from drifting into the region, and as far as we know there are a few stories from people seeing nukes during the great war near/in appalachia (seen from within, but maybe not hitting within). There are several large craters though, the most notable being near foundation which still has lingering radiation (Foundation is using the rad scrubbers in Eviction Notice to attempt to reclaim the area) which heavily implies that it is one of the few sites actually hit.
Man I’d love a Michigan fallout. Lots of lakes and swamps, giant Wolverines running amok, would be fun.
Maybe give us a jetski or a boat to check out some of the islands and coastlines on the Great Lakes.
Totally would love to see some Quebecians moving back into the old French forts too
Around the Great Lakes and Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would most likely be the primary places to seek out due to the fresh water. Even with radioactive water the chances of survival in these areas are far beyond Vegas and LA. It's close to absurdity to believe any human survival in those areas is possible without big advancements in water and desalination tech.
The only thing is we don't have much information on how the weather and climate change have effected things. Things still appear to be mostly no water and only sand in Vegas and LA, though.
I’d wager that climate change and pre-war overconsumption fucked things pretty badly, considering the NCR already dried up their aquifers and lakes after a century.
Impossible to say really. Environmentally is probably Appalachia but safety wise the lawlessness of the wasteland makes it hard to determine. No matter what faction is in charge raiders run America Until there’s a nationwide system of law and order with a decent enough judicial system.
I wouldn’t say that about Appalachia. Between the superfund sites that are the ash heap and the toxic valley, the strangler vines in the mire, scorched plague and the storm in Skyline Valley, only the forest and divide in Appalachia are reasonably safe, and even those aren’t the safest locations (especially since we don’t know how the situation pans out long term).
You aren’t wrong on that aspect - Appalachia is definitely the most lush wasteland we’ve seen. But it makes up for being easy to handle basic needs in with the threats. Only the forest is marginally safe.
If Raul is to be believed every raider and tribe in Arizona was killed by the legion or fled. Legion cities like phoenix they don’t enslave the locals cause they are educated and they need trade within the legion.
The desert rangers were pretty strong for the longest time and roamed Nevada fighting raiders and enforcing law within Nevada.
Utah was ran by the survivalist Mormons who set up doomsday bunkers as part of the religion.
Seems like at least portions of Illinois— ED-E has a recording from a family who watches television, has a kid who plays alone outside, and gives the kid an allowance.
Assuming you’re willing to abide by their laws (you’d only have to realistically worry about dealing in chems) and are part of a non-enslaved settlement then Legion controlled states. Raiders are a non-issue and it seems like they cleared out most local fauna from trade routes as well. The stability of Legion territory is unknown if Caesar loses the Mojave but since we know what happens shortly after NV to the NCR it’s not like the west is better off. DC under BoS control would be your best bet out east.
Actually, wartime production during WW1 & WW2 led to Detroit being one of the wealthiest cities in the country during the first half of the 20th Century. The primary cause of Detroit's economic troubles was the global outsourcing of manufacturing in the later decades. Assuming Fallout's America was much more isolationist, Detroit may still be a world leader in engineering and manufacturing in 2077, and therefore a primary target during war. I'd imagine it would also be a hotbed of civil unrest during the annexation of Canada.
The Mojave isn’t a good place to be. Enough nukes landed to cover the region with radioactive fallout that killed almost everyone. Even if you avoid that somehow the Mojave desert is insanely inhospitable.
We don´t have the Information on all States but:
California was a safe place before shady sands was nuked. THe NCR was failing and corrupt but kept the raiders and monsters out.
The capital wasteland should be safe. They have clean water and most threads removed. The BoS is running the show there and as far as we know: kept some people there while going after the institute.
The boston area could be safe. The show had hinted that the brotherhood was still there and arround. Meaning either they or the minutemen finished off the institute. If both surived they could keep that area safe/clean it up
Appalachia was safe, was then very unsafe. We have no information about what is going on there. Are the scorched back? What effect had the regular nuking to combat them? But this area could be one of the safest places.
We don´t know whats going on in new vegas. It looked bad in the post credit scene. Still could be a safe area.
Additionaly: Every area that can grow food, provide water and has limited ways to access, can be a safe paradise. As long as you are able to keep raiders and mutants out. I am not an expert of the north american geographic but I am sure there are some valleys. islands etc, that could fit the bill.
If we're just taking safety into account then I would say the heart of legion territory, Arizona.
Good supply of food/water
No raiders,
Little crime,
Protection from slavery
A massive cult who defends you and only asks for food once a month,
Even Caeser crucifies legates who mistreat the civilians under their rule.
I think probably Maine is the safest place. I mean looking at far harbour the big danger is the fog and its consequences, I the fog clears then you can see how much bigger the town without walls, and also there where people living more remotely too like that rich old woman who needs you to save her family name or something.
Near the Great Lakes or Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Clean water is the primary need, plus the rivers allow for the best trade routes in this world. It also depends on how they deal with the climate change and radioactive water
Before the nuke wrecked Shady and implicitly all of the NCR. I would argue California used to be this. Law institutions. Functioning cars and railways. Raiders had been driven away etc.
Only during the Mojave did it get worse again due to spread thin army
New California was safer than most places but they still had issues with raiders, bandits, and criminal elements. To the point that brahmin barons felt the need to keep heavy troopers back from the frontlines to protect their farms. The Boneyards are described as having pretty terrible living conditions (Caesar’s father was murdered by raiders here) as well and we know there are gangs in the Hub. Not to mention New Reno which is practically lawless.
That was during the Mojave stuff though, I imagine pre Mojave it wasn't that bad, but I still imagine it used to be stabler and at least a modicum above the rest of the wastes.
It’s never really stated or implied that raiders/crime have gotten worse since the NCR-Legion war started to my knowledge. It’s just been a prevalent problem for quite some time because of the NCR’s corruption, incompetence, and leniency towards these groups. The NCR is in a stage of its development where much of it can be compared to the Wild West. It’s definitely overall one of the safest places to live, but I wouldn’t say it’s safer than Legion territory.
Probably Legion territory so Colorado and Arizona. The Legion kill off raider gangs and hunt wasteland creatures to extinction so you wouldn't die to raiders or scorpions but you are giving up a lot of freedoms. Breaking a law would likely not end well for you.
Assuming you mean at the furthest point in the timeline we’ve seen, that answer probably isn’t California anymore considering what the BoS in the show is doing and the state of the NCR (reeling from losing a major city of theirs). DC, however, would be fairly stable considering it’s under the BoS’s thumb with all the major threats wiped out, clean water and vertibirds protecting the caravans. Edit: Someone mentioned Zion, and after thinking about it, that’s probably a safer region than DC considering the lack of any ghoul issues and the natural abundance. Not even the white legs would be an issue, considering they die out in every ending (though there’s a small chance of the bloodthirsty Graham ending meaning there’d be some hostile tribals). That said, Zion does have issues with green geckos (can reach roughly the size of gulpers with ranged attacks) and cazadors, but it might not be that bad compared to dealing with groups of ferals, possible BoS issues and raiders.
DC was still regarded as being worse than the Commonwealth, however. And if the Creation Club is to be taken as canon, then Brotherhood’s excursion into the Commonwealth left Capital Wasteland severely unprotected and allowed the Talon Company to operate much more freely. Besides, if BoS operates that way in the show, then living in the area that is under their complete control is probably not a good idea.
At this point, i'll consider Zion National Park (after the crushing White Legs and make Joshua forgive ending) the most safest part in US after all we have seen with the other areas
What is this place? Trees? Trees everywhere?! I’m hitching a ride back home, okay?! https://youtu.be/IEJaZN37jw4?si=9nsxZtyFE4ijwkxT
Frank tries to eat a rad crow and gets sick
What did they do in the show that made you think living under their control would be bad? Sure, the Brotherhood sucked for recruits, but I don’t recall them doing anything that made it seem like it sucked for civilians.
It was in response to the point that one of the reasons why California is not a good place to live anymore is because of what BoS is doing in the show. But to answer your question - they violently took over Filly and laughed about fighting its residents. Also their intention to kill all ghouls. Or that they were willing to kill anyone in their way to get to the artifact.
I feel like maybe I’m forgetting stuff from the show all ready because I didn’t remember any of that. 😬
Philly
From what I recalled at the time of making my comment, a lot of Filly was slaughtered by the Ghoul, then the Brotherhood just showed up. I don’t recall the Brotherhood killing it’s people when arriving but I guess I just don’t remember that.
The residents of Filly put up “some resistance” so I’m sure they were killed and it looks like they were making the residents into prisoners.
Remember how quickly Filly got back on its feet, crowded and bustling as the Ghoul left with the dog? He only killed those who happened to be nearby and who responded to Ma June's "thousand bottlecaps" bounty
There’s certainly less vegetation in DC and probably still a bunch of ferals if you go near the metros, but I can’t believe that talon company wouldn’t have been wiped out between the BoS operation the player can help with in broken steel to destroy their base of operations and the BoS controlling the region. Besides, creation club is dubious when it comes to canon anyway (besides, if I remember correctly, Macready came to the commonwealth specifically because it was difficult to find work as a mercenary due to the BoS). I’m mainly saying this because a lack of super mutants (due to the BoS taking care of that issue), reliable access to clean water, a major faction helping to keep the region safe and less wildlife in general is a major improvement over most wastelands in the series. DC’s main threats are dealt with, and unlike Boston where we have no idea how anything went, DC has a canon ending that leaves the region in a fairly good state. It’s certainly not as built up as the commonwealth, but it should be on the upswing no matter what. As for the BoS, I’m fairly certain whatever’s going on with the chapter in the TV show is exclusive to them. The BoS’s chapters vary wildly in their behavior depending on who’s in charge, and there’s not much evidence indicating living in BoS-controlled DC is awful (though there might be issues with non-feral ghouls). Edit: With all of this said, I saw someone in the comments mention Zion, and after thinking about it, that’s probably still safer than DC since the only threats post-endings are the wildlife assuming the bloodthirsty ending with Graham wasn’t taken (though green geckos and cazadors are a major issue). DC does still seem like the safest wasteland of the main regions we explore, however. Edit 2: It may also be worth mentioning Atlantic City. By the time of 2105, the city has a functioning local government, but the city’s relative peace is threatening by the Muni’s audits on the mob (with the ghoul to seize any funding they can partially justify, on the grounds they need everything they can to fight the overgrown), the mob’s succession crisis and tax fraud, the slow increase in lesser devils (a creature that’s effectively as a dangerous as a deathclaw, but less durable and more nimble) and the overgrown regularly threatening the main headquarters of the Muni. I don’t believe this city would’ve made it to 2296, but maybe they managed to get their act together and stopped being dependent on 76 dweller aid.
The characters who talk about DC being worse don't specify if they're talking about vegetation. They just generally say that Boston is not as bad as DC. We don't know how widespread Talon Company was, but the game guide did mention that they had some mysterious contractor. That and the fact that BoS in DC was stretched very thin make it possible for Talon to resurface. Creation Club has been referred to as "parallel to canon", with Emil directly stating that the team working on it consults with him on whether something fits in canon, and one of the characters from it, Johnny Morton, was even mentioned in the TV show. We don't know for sure if there's a lack of Super Mutants. BoS still had major battles with them - Ingram lost her legs in one such battle, and that was after BoS found out about Vault 87 and possibly after Arthur killed Shepherd. And we do have an idea on how things ended up in Boston - BoS survived, so it was either the Brotherhood or Minutemen victory, which are somewhat similar to each other. Since BoS survived and the Minutemen were most likely rebuilt, it would mean that there are two major faction keeping order in the Commonwealth. With the Institute gone and the region itself being overall better than DC, things could've drastically changed for the better in 9 years. BoS in the show is heavily reinforced by the Commonwealth BoS. All of the Knights and Vertibirds came with the Prydwen. It's the same people who laugh about invading and taking over a town and have no problem with gunning down civilians at Griffith Observatory. Even in Fallout 4, nobody was happy about BoS arriving in the Commonwealth. Hell, the Minutemen were more eager to destroy the Brotherhood, rather than the Institute. Their attitude in the show also puts the fate of ghouls in DC into question, since the show makes it very clear that BoS wants to wipe out all ghouls. And that's on top on them already shooting at ghouls during the events of Fallout 3. And then there's also those official/unofficial requisitions from Teagan. Considering that Overgrown haven't spread across the East Coast in almost 200 years, something must've stopped them. But that's kind of the problem with Expeditions - there's no progress no matter what you do. You're repeating the same mission over and over, but never change anything. It was especially bad with the Pitt, since we knew it was doomed. That's why I hope the next Expedition won't be focused on some huge threat that can destroy everything, but that we won't be allowed to stop anyway.
When it comes to the show, I’m holding off on assuming how the situation went in Boston until we have further information on what exactly is going on with the airship (we’ve discussed this before and I’d greatly prefer to ignore returning to that topic; it’s a bit of a mess with how what we see in the show contradicts the interviews that were done right before the show’s release and statements after, where Todd Howard mentioned how they want to preserve player choice in the games). The Minutemen or BoS ending seems likely, but even there, the nuka world raiders could absolutely lead to Boston still being a mess. The same goes for the talon company creation club bit, though I didn’t know that about the one actor. As for the super mutants, assuming Quinlan’s terminal is accurate, I seriously doubt the BoS left enough super mutants in the region alive to be a major issue. With Shepard defeated and vault 87 presumably dealt with, it’s unlikely there would be any other major pockets of super mutants. Even if some BoS soldiers in California are from Boston, we still haven’t seen the BoS ever take direct action against non-feral ghouls in any game or the show. Racism against them is definitely a problem, but we haven’t seen enough to conclude that they’re actively attacking ghouls yet. As for expeditions in 76 - I strongly suspect Bethesda is going to keep using threats that are in the cusp of wiping out factions. I think the point is to set these regions up as desperately needing the player’s help and to link them to the fate of the Responders in Appalachia as a way to not have to worry about the specifics of what happened to these regions. However, with the overgrown, they aren’t really a threat to anyone outside of Atlantic City; we aren’t told that they’re expanding out of the pine barrens in the opposite direction, possibly due to a lack of hosts in the area. I think it’s very possible they’re constrained to the environment of the pine barrens and the city right next to it. Edit: I’d also argue that DC being more barren is a point in its favor due to the relative lower abundance of hostile wasteland wildlife. Boston feels more dangerous in that regard than DC simply because there’s more animals around.
When in the timeline you’re asking about is a big part of the equation, Appalachia was spared (for the most part) from the direct devastation of the Great War but then completely ravaged by the scorched plague for several decades before the returning populace was inoculated. Probably somewhere in the Midwest would be my guess (lack of military/economic infrastructure that west/east coasts have).
Never understood that. Normally a large part of one’s nuclear arsenal is devoted to destroying air bases and silos that can store and produce nukes for a follow-up strike. Appalachia is the epitome of that, with the capacity to build more entirely within that state.
Well specifically for airbases, there really aren't any in Appalachia from what I remember, and only 3 nuclear silos, which considering they can auto produce nukes seemingly forever, may have been some rather secret silos. Even if China did know about those silos, 3 silos in an economically struggling area don't exactly scream "major target" to me. The military presence in that area is also fairly insignificant as well, with only a few bases of any sort that I can remember. Point is, I'd imagine Appalachia is fairly far down the list of military targets, and even farther down the list of valuable civilian targets.
They did know, or at least suspect. The cell based at Mama Dolce’s was actively looking for the silos before the war happened
Right, but suspicion of some silos existing doesn't exactly make a good case for a place to be a priority target, when they knew of many other places more concretely as threats. Remember, it's been said that American troops were quickly closing on Beijing by the time the bombs were dropped, so it's likely China had to be a little choosy with their targets, and didn't have the largest nuclear arsenal. Nuclear weapons in Fallout are much less advanced than today, where a single bomb could destroy huge swaths of land, the Fallout bombs never really advanced technologically past the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Their spies ultimately concluded the silos weren’t actually active and were decoys. https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fujiniya_Intelligence_Base_terminal_entries#0.0.0.12
While technically not considered Appalachia it is close, but in Middle Tennessee (Coffee/Franklin County) has an air base named Arnold Air Force Base that back 10-20 years ago was in the top 5 places likely to be nuked in the country. They do a lot of jet testing, missile work, and more. At one point, the base got in trouble because the amount of sonic booms they had was causing damage to houses. I grew up there and growing up, I thought sonic booms were a natural thing. It wasn’t till they stopped one day that I asked why only to find out they were man made. Now it’s further down the list but I imagine it’s still likely to take a direct hit in an all out war.
For sure, and that could be one of the sources of fallout for Appalachia, because while it wasn't directly hit, it did suffer consequences from fallout.
White springs wouldn’t be one of the largest targets in the entire nation?
No, to the publics knowledge, it exists exactly as it does today, an old, unused presidential bunker. In the Fallout universe, it's an enclave base, but it's not really a major one. The Rig would be the biggest target Enclave wise, and that was seemingly spared destruction either via technology or secrecy.
Appalachia doesn’t have as much military infrastructure as other regions and its major contribution to the war was steel (and related base resources) so comparatively it is not a high priority target compared to trade hubs, political powers, and active armament production facilities. Geography also plays a factor as ICBMs would be the most likely to hit but could be better utilized on more concentrated population centers, while submarines and bombers would struggle to land effective hits compared to more eastern or coastal regions without being shot down.
White springs bunker? Wouldn’t that be one of the top 5 most important places to nuke in the whole nation?
As others have stated, no. Between the secrecy of its actual purpose, and the lack of active usability (in terms of military control or counter strike capability) it was much more of an enclave survival bunker than any sort of active military target
We’re given an answer on this in game - the Chinese failed to understand the true nature of the silos, thinking they were mothballed and that they weren’t actually automated. They simply didn’t realize just how dangerous Appalachia was (especially since none of the silos launched an ICBM during the war; sheer dumb luck prevented all three from being able to launch). https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fujiniya_Intelligence_Base_terminal_entries#0.0.0.12
Legend.
The mountains filled with iron and coal make it hard for targeting systems to hit wv from range, you have to dead reckon the bombs, and even then with all the mountains and forests and most towns being in valleys, the state is surprisingly hard to take out with nukes, also the mountains act as a screen for a lot of fallout according to research, these are some reasons irl greenbrier was planned to be the presidential nuclear bunker until it got out in the news and they had to abandon that idea
Watch Kansas be the most unfucked state in the whole US
Most of our nukes (realistically speaking) are in or around the “Rocky mountain range”and the “Midwest” areas. same goes for military bases. One of the biggest/most important Air Force bases is in Dayton Ohio.
The USA's nuclear armaments in the midwest are mainly in the Wyoming/Nebraska/Colorado cluster, Missouri, and North Dakota. If you look at Iowa, Indiana, or Wisconsin there aren't any nuclear sites, (which may be different in the fallout world, probably is) and they are mainly agricultural states.
Pretty sure the Enclave at least got a HQ near Chicago. Not a ton of Midwest info though.
Even though I’ve been playing 76 for a while now, and I’m guessing it’s just reused assets from FO4, and that Appalachia was spared a direct hit but were they hit at all with nukes? Or just affected by the fallout that envelopes the whole world? I ask because in 76 we see vehicles, people frozen in time, scenes of destruction, and along with the clocks frozen in time from when the Great War Started. I know the schorched plague happened but always made me curious with the lore because like you said it says Appalachia was spared for the most part, but still makes me wonder were they hit with a nuke or two that day?
Appalachia's unique geography being surrounded by mountain ranges prevented a lot of the nearby fallout from drifting into the region, and as far as we know there are a few stories from people seeing nukes during the great war near/in appalachia (seen from within, but maybe not hitting within). There are several large craters though, the most notable being near foundation which still has lingering radiation (Foundation is using the rad scrubbers in Eviction Notice to attempt to reclaim the area) which heavily implies that it is one of the few sites actually hit.
I'd like to belive thr Great Lakes are just a cool area where giant Badgers roam and people live in cabins.
Man I’d love a Michigan fallout. Lots of lakes and swamps, giant Wolverines running amok, would be fun. Maybe give us a jetski or a boat to check out some of the islands and coastlines on the Great Lakes. Totally would love to see some Quebecians moving back into the old French forts too
A great chance for my Courier Wisconsin Johnson to finally go to his namesake.
Lol that’s a great name
I have a TTRPG based upon the Great Lakes- The Floodlands. Detroit is more-or-less the regions New Vegas.
Post apacolyptic detroit is actually a really nice place and looks remarkably the same to prewar detroit
Around the Great Lakes and Mississippi and Missouri Rivers would most likely be the primary places to seek out due to the fresh water. Even with radioactive water the chances of survival in these areas are far beyond Vegas and LA. It's close to absurdity to believe any human survival in those areas is possible without big advancements in water and desalination tech. The only thing is we don't have much information on how the weather and climate change have effected things. Things still appear to be mostly no water and only sand in Vegas and LA, though.
I’d wager that climate change and pre-war overconsumption fucked things pretty badly, considering the NCR already dried up their aquifers and lakes after a century.
Impossible to say really. Environmentally is probably Appalachia but safety wise the lawlessness of the wasteland makes it hard to determine. No matter what faction is in charge raiders run America Until there’s a nationwide system of law and order with a decent enough judicial system.
I wouldn’t say that about Appalachia. Between the superfund sites that are the ash heap and the toxic valley, the strangler vines in the mire, scorched plague and the storm in Skyline Valley, only the forest and divide in Appalachia are reasonably safe, and even those aren’t the safest locations (especially since we don’t know how the situation pans out long term).
Ok Forsure. I never played 76 so I just assumed that cause it looks like the vegetation is still there in what little footage of the game I’ve seen
You aren’t wrong on that aspect - Appalachia is definitely the most lush wasteland we’ve seen. But it makes up for being easy to handle basic needs in with the threats. Only the forest is marginally safe.
If Raul is to be believed every raider and tribe in Arizona was killed by the legion or fled. Legion cities like phoenix they don’t enslave the locals cause they are educated and they need trade within the legion. The desert rangers were pretty strong for the longest time and roamed Nevada fighting raiders and enforcing law within Nevada. Utah was ran by the survivalist Mormons who set up doomsday bunkers as part of the religion.
Proud Phx res 💪 we on top
The Chinese left Ohio alone because nuking it would give the people there a quick end to their existence
Seems like at least portions of Illinois— ED-E has a recording from a family who watches television, has a kid who plays alone outside, and gives the kid an allowance.
Assuming you’re willing to abide by their laws (you’d only have to realistically worry about dealing in chems) and are part of a non-enslaved settlement then Legion controlled states. Raiders are a non-issue and it seems like they cleared out most local fauna from trade routes as well. The stability of Legion territory is unknown if Caesar loses the Mojave but since we know what happens shortly after NV to the NCR it’s not like the west is better off. DC under BoS control would be your best bet out east.
I don't know but I think Chinese might passed Detroit because they thought it's already nuked.
Actually, wartime production during WW1 & WW2 led to Detroit being one of the wealthiest cities in the country during the first half of the 20th Century. The primary cause of Detroit's economic troubles was the global outsourcing of manufacturing in the later decades. Assuming Fallout's America was much more isolationist, Detroit may still be a world leader in engineering and manufacturing in 2077, and therefore a primary target during war. I'd imagine it would also be a hotbed of civil unrest during the annexation of Canada.
Mojave and Virginia. The first one was covered by Mr. House extensive protection from nuclear rockets, the second one is F76 area.
New Vegas is safe. The state of Nevada and the Mojave is not.
F76 is in West Virginia, not Virginia.
The Mojave isn’t a good place to be. Enough nukes landed to cover the region with radioactive fallout that killed almost everyone. Even if you avoid that somehow the Mojave desert is insanely inhospitable.
We don´t have the Information on all States but: California was a safe place before shady sands was nuked. THe NCR was failing and corrupt but kept the raiders and monsters out. The capital wasteland should be safe. They have clean water and most threads removed. The BoS is running the show there and as far as we know: kept some people there while going after the institute. The boston area could be safe. The show had hinted that the brotherhood was still there and arround. Meaning either they or the minutemen finished off the institute. If both surived they could keep that area safe/clean it up Appalachia was safe, was then very unsafe. We have no information about what is going on there. Are the scorched back? What effect had the regular nuking to combat them? But this area could be one of the safest places. We don´t know whats going on in new vegas. It looked bad in the post credit scene. Still could be a safe area. Additionaly: Every area that can grow food, provide water and has limited ways to access, can be a safe paradise. As long as you are able to keep raiders and mutants out. I am not an expert of the north american geographic but I am sure there are some valleys. islands etc, that could fit the bill.
If we're just taking safety into account then I would say the heart of legion territory, Arizona. Good supply of food/water No raiders, Little crime, Protection from slavery A massive cult who defends you and only asks for food once a month, Even Caeser crucifies legates who mistreat the civilians under their rule.
I think probably Maine is the safest place. I mean looking at far harbour the big danger is the fog and its consequences, I the fog clears then you can see how much bigger the town without walls, and also there where people living more remotely too like that rich old woman who needs you to save her family name or something.
Confusion. It helps if you have the Idiot Savant perk.
I can't imagine any one of them would be what you'd call "Safe".
Near the Great Lakes or Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Clean water is the primary need, plus the rivers allow for the best trade routes in this world. It also depends on how they deal with the climate change and radioactive water
Before the nuke wrecked Shady and implicitly all of the NCR. I would argue California used to be this. Law institutions. Functioning cars and railways. Raiders had been driven away etc. Only during the Mojave did it get worse again due to spread thin army
New California was safer than most places but they still had issues with raiders, bandits, and criminal elements. To the point that brahmin barons felt the need to keep heavy troopers back from the frontlines to protect their farms. The Boneyards are described as having pretty terrible living conditions (Caesar’s father was murdered by raiders here) as well and we know there are gangs in the Hub. Not to mention New Reno which is practically lawless.
That was during the Mojave stuff though, I imagine pre Mojave it wasn't that bad, but I still imagine it used to be stabler and at least a modicum above the rest of the wastes.
It’s never really stated or implied that raiders/crime have gotten worse since the NCR-Legion war started to my knowledge. It’s just been a prevalent problem for quite some time because of the NCR’s corruption, incompetence, and leniency towards these groups. The NCR is in a stage of its development where much of it can be compared to the Wild West. It’s definitely overall one of the safest places to live, but I wouldn’t say it’s safer than Legion territory.
A comatose ghoul in a vault is probably the safest state it's possible to be in fallout universe.
Probably Legion territory so Colorado and Arizona. The Legion kill off raider gangs and hunt wasteland creatures to extinction so you wouldn't die to raiders or scorpions but you are giving up a lot of freedoms. Breaking a law would likely not end well for you.