this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023

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Fallout

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a quick gripe about the Ameri-centric nature of falloit (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Yall gonna crucify me like the degenerate I am but... GET THE HELL OUT OF THE U.S.

Et-hnm Literally go anywhere else, I know we have more of the U.S. to cover (geographicly) but I'd like to see how other communities are doing, also even if you leave English as the language CHANGE IT SOME.

They've had the same general dialect since wastelands, I mean yeah we hear different accents but the general verbiage and stuff has always been far too accessible in my opinion. Language changes with situation and culture. I'd imagine having a nuclear apocalypse would cause more variation but alas no such luck.

And make it so different communities refer to the critters differently, why does everyone call deathclaw deathclaw, mole rats, rad-roach.... give us unique variations. Make us afraid of El Demonios Gris. But again I want a build up to it like in the isometric fallouts.

What do yall think is this too much of a pipe dream?

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That "time frozen in '50s American retrofuturistic utopian design" is a fundamental part of Fallout's lore and visual identity. They could totally go outside that, but it'd be considered a ballsy departure and it'd be a huge chance to get it wrong compared to the safety of the known design.

I'd like to see them do it, but I think there's too much for them to do within the framework still before trying something like that. A bit similar to how GTA is trapped in America due to how core to its identity American culture is.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah see I'd love to see that aesthetic in other variations. Like if you look at Panama for example during the 50s the aesthetic was very similar to the US at that time. Because of all the US influences of that time. And US money too. I Live in South America and would love to hear about the NCR expansion through Baja and maybe they pushed all the way though to south America and set up shipping or something. Like there's a wealth of stories to be told. And you can keep a lot of the general visual aesthetic and set dressing just tweaked to fit with the environment (like how new vegas vaults are tweaked from fo3's)

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely, we just need to see bravery and a risk taken from Bethesda to go outside their comfort zone.

[+] CookieJarObserver -9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But fallout doesn't need to live from "MURICA FUCK YEAH" it would work great everywhere. And the 50s retro futuristic world building doesn't need to change at all.

GTA is little different, they just give you a island map and call shit similar to real world stuff, the muricaland part is basically just the Guns, and political statements during the story lines. Theoretically it would work without mentioning USA once, just take out the flags and you could say the game plays everywhere, organized crime is a thing in every country and you can get guns everywhere, especially if you are organized crime...

There is no point besides wanting to appeal to the usa centric consumers that think Europe doesn't have roads or that internet was invented in "murica"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The point is having a series identity. If you're willing to change so much of what is core to the series you're better off starting a new franchise. It's the same reason the BOS keeps popping up even though they honestly shouldn't be as prevalent as they are.

Cold war paranoia, US exceptionalism, and corporatism are core to the series.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm not saying it wouldnt possibly work great. It's that the specific people doing all the work, what they have to reference and call back on, all of the experience and the history that makes doing art and design for a new game smoother and more like the assembly line that a sequel tries to be is restricted to that specific vision.

It'd be an investment and a risk to go beyond that. Ideally, it'd be awesome and has potential payoff, but it's scary as a business venture.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago

Your absolutely correct to say it's a work scope issue with production. But I feel like it doesn't have to be, be it AI automation or even getting a 2nd location company involved I think it would pay off in the end both critically and financially. It's just getting to the point where the companys will do it. That's the real challenge right now. I think at least.

[–] CookieJarObserver -1 points 1 year ago

This sounds just depressing as hell... Why would designers be interested in drawing the same car just with more pixels for years... The change from game to game is always very little, programming and designing the same stuff over and over again. But yeah, Rockstar and Bethesda are kinda soulless nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd like to see something done involving Canada. In the lore the US annexed Canada for reasons but nothing was really done with it in the games. You don't even meet a Canadian ghoul.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hahaha I just tried to do a Canadian goul voice and.. I think I broke trying to reconcile gravel with the long lyrical vowels of Canadian English. This may be why they haven't done that yet hahaha

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I dunno, I thought the "American-ness" has been a pretty important part of the three games I've played (3, NV, 4).

Not that I'd frankly mind a Fallout-style game or even an actual Fallout set somewhere else. It just seems like satirizing a lot of fairly "American" things is a very large part of what the series is even about, from lore to dialogue to worldbuilding and, I suppose, gameplay.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A Fallout game in Mexico would be a hype spin-off game similar to New Vegas. We know from existing lore that Mexico had heavy US investment to the point that China felt the need to nuke it. Because of its close ties to the US in lore, much of the 50s Americana aesthetic can still be used with some Mexican flavor mixed in, while the cultural differences between the US and Mexico would allow the tone and story to be a great departure from existing Fallout titles

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its been a while since I've brushed up on my fallout lore, but weren't the bombs pretty much exclusively dropped on America? Idk if it's ever stated anywhere whether other countries had bombs dropped on them; if so then I'm with you, but if not then I feel like it'd break the fallout aesthetic to explore a region that isn't a nuclear wasteland with craters and radiation all over the place. Like I feel like it'd be kinda boring if we were walking around through Paris or something and it's completely unscathed except for everyone being dead due to the nuclear winter and all that.

Idk, just kinda talking outta my ass here, but if the lore supports it then it'd be pretty cool to go somewhere new for a change.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think those are the only ones we know about doesn't necessarily mean that's all of them. And I seem to recall one of the newspaper loading screens for fo3 showing europ with a like launch radius graphic over France or something... or was that something from a fan work?

Anywhere the thing is The bombs aren't important. Yes they've become a primary symbol of the series but in the end (to me at least) what makes fallout Fallout is the struggles to rebuild. We have seen it on soo many different scales, the lone wanderer rebuilding their life after its flipped upside down by James leaving, the chosen one rebuilding after arroyo is taken, the vault dweller adapting ti life outside the vault and then going on to (in most canons) to be the guardian of the vault and founding arroyo.

I honestly feel like 4 and 76 kinda missed the mark, 4 tried to do something with the sole survivor but they went too M. Night on it I think. And 76... it's an mmo with fallout like aesthetics to me (I don't mean this as rude as it sounds).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The bombs aren’t important what makes fallout Fallout is the struggles to rebuild

The whole theme is how nobody wins in war. There can’t really be any rebuilding in south america (which is what you argue for because you live there) because there were no bombs. The interesting technology core to the series like fusion wouldn’t even take place in SA due to lack of american militarism.

Countries not Canada/USA were:

Not bombed during the great war Not in an arms race leading to development of fusion tech They have no power armor, mutants, or recognizable villains No reason to rebuild other than scarcity (excluding europe and middle east)

In an earlier comment you described south/latin america as possibly an NCR trade route. I believe FO4 source code has unused data for a mutant whale, implying the existence of mutated sea creatures. It would take several centuries for the NCR to build a nation large enough to have international trade.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

76's focus on rebuilding is honestly one of its stronger aspects. The whole lore with >!the Responders, Free States, and Appalachian BoS working together and rebuilding the region for the 3 decades after the bombs dropped to their desperate last stand against the scorched plague, the Secret Service working post war to establish a new, more stable currency post war than bottle caps, and the surviving Responders working with the survivors of the Enclave at the Whitesprings to bring order to Appalachia and The Pitt!< really makes Appalachia feel like a region trying to pull itself together versus the largest settlement in 4 being a bunch of dirty scrap metal shacks in an abandoned baseball stadium over 200 years after the bombs dropped

[–] CookieJarObserver 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fallout Germany would be such a great concept. You could literally make a world map that is 95% Forrest and you would finally see other guns or close combat stuff.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd love to see how the old castles and stuff held up or didn't. Like I'm just thinking of some of those old masonry buildings that are already questionable ... after nukes yikes. But also the different tech to hold them up would look cool.

Omg 😲 bos troops (or equivelent) in like actual like jousting armor (modes for servos and stuff) I need this drawing STAT. 😍

[–] CookieJarObserver 1 points 1 year ago

Most Castles would likely survive, they aren't near citys often or geographically protected in other ways. Would be great to see the castles as camps for raiders/citys and it would be cool to see bows, crossbows and similar things more.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You may be interested in the Fallout: London conversion mod, which is planned to release later this year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The only good non-US setting IMO is a Far Harbor sized DLC in a dense urban part of the USSR. That would contrast the typical US centric Fallout games rather than shirk them. Maybe it could reveal what sparked the first missle launch, and who did it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I thought that was revealed with the crashed space station in the nuka-cola dlc? Essentially the aliens attacked, everyone thought it was each other, missiles fired.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe I'm mistaken but I don't remember a crashed space station in Nuka World, but it's been a bit. Looked it up and only see results for one in 76.

My interpretation is that there's been multiple potential groups hinted at for starting it but nothing conclusive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why USSR? The war was between China and the US. They could also just go wild and run a story from the POV of the Euro-Middle Eastern War

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The USSR has a lot of landmarks recognizable to an international audience like Saint Basil's, Red Square, or the Kremlin if they went with Moscow. The USSR and China were allies so presumably Russia had some role in the war that hasn't been covered much yet.

Also the USSR isn't around anymore China is. So Bethesda might be worried about them doing something like invading Taiwan that might drastically impact the perception of the release.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Sorry its early and I had that rant sitting in my head and just started typing and now I'm more awake and... I'm sorry for the typos 😅