I was watching a documentary on the Boat People of Vietnam. These folks live in collections of boat houses that are tied up along the shore. The food they get comes mostly from the river they live on and they trade their excess catch for items that they need. These folks live a simple life, no technology, no electricity, no running water, things we in the West take for granted. They have lived like this for hundreds of years. Their lives are one of peace and happiness and I guess you could call this society stable as it has existed like this for so long (irrespective of the various governemnts of Vietnam, which these folks mostly ignore anyway).

The guy who was doing the documentary lived with these folks for a few months. Being a Western Journalist, he was used to all the modern marvels that we all know. He remarked that after a few weeks, he did not miss his TV, Cell Phone, Internet or any of the other trappings of Western Life. He wondered aloud if he could live his whole life this way, and he concluded that if he was raised in this enviorment, he would be just as happy to live the way these folks do.

Technology does not equate to stabilty, or even better quality of life. It just makes some things easier to do. I don't see where humans have to have technology to live a happy rich life.

Jordann, there is one big key that perhaps (or perhaps not) you might not be factoring into your observations. Namely, it's 200 years AFTER the bombs fell. So, there definitely WAS a period of time when things were MUCH more brutal than they are as we see it in New Vegas. Things like you are mentioning definitely happened at least theoretically anyway. And to a much less degree they still happen in the current timeline. But just imagine the progress our civilization has made in the past 200 years and it's not a huge stretch to believe that society could rebound to the point we see in our game in that period of time. (Perhaps a little suspension of disbelief is necessary, but that could be true with any work of fiction, right?) Buy you're right in many of your points that it would have been hell to live through, and it still is compared to our standard of living!

Thanks for starting this thought proving thread! :foodndrink:



I think I saw that. Was it the one that they helped him build his own little dirt floor shack? That was great!

Exactly. But it would be so difficult for the West because they have already been exposed to this evil technology. Just to drop all of it in a matter of days, or maybe even hours, would be devastating.

Yes, it would. The are would kill millions, the aftermath would kill billions. Those that could not adapt, would die. Survival of the fittest would become the rule of the day, rather than just a catchy phrase. It would be decades before the population actually started expanding again..... for several years after the war, survival in the 'outside' world would be nearly impossible. Radiation, disease, others trying to survive..... Dog eat dog would be a mild way to put it.

But, people WOULD survive. And not just those in the vaults. We have a rather large selection of the population that already have the skills required to survive in an 'end of the world as we know it' situation. There are whole communities BASED on just such a premise.

Human beings are a stubborn lot. We are notoriously hard to completely eradicate. Kinda like cockroaches.

Persistant cockroaches. But pfft, there isn't anything wrong with canibalism. Just ethically wrong, a disgusting thought in modern society, but in a time where hell now walks the earth, there are few options. I hear brain is a good source of protein :tongue:. Besides, there wouldn't be a point in surviving. The inevitable will occur, i just hope our government is preparing. Thanks for that timeline, if that was you, very informative.

We were told in FO3 that canada is as bad the states, but has a distopian techno city / cities that if true are far more powerful in their current state than most of america.

The Irish / brits are implied to still be around and floating across the pond, but this may just be that the VA in FO was nerferd into thinking they would retain their mother speech patterns.
After 200 years of being born and raised in the wastelands believe me this would not be the case.

In NV Mexico is implied to have had involvment with the NCR, but in a bad way.

FO2 had the Chinese but as survivours of a submarine not actual current imergrants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) aka the Shakes. Check out the "Kuru in Popular Culture" part.

Yeah i read that. It interested me im just a bit skeptical about it. How fast would it spread? I mean, you do drink from urinals for health, how long until you become sick?

80 Million plus Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans with guns.

As well as American Nukes

Your not dropping it all. People were prepared adn stockpiling.

And even if it were to happen right now there is still tonnes of tech out there that can be salvaged adn reused adn used in different means.

In FO1 there was data that Chinese infrastructure was heavily depended on imported energy/food, while the US was the only country with enough surplus to maintain their current needs. The Chinese started demanding more trade and the US refused and even cut back the supply causing turmoil in China and starting the war. This is a very real and very possible future for our world right now. Oil reserves are likely to be drained by 2077.... so guess some of us may live to see what if?

It would pain me so much to see this happen, yet inside I wouldn't be able to stop the laughter at the ironic thought that I once played a video game based on that scenario just 67 years back :tongue:

But that's why they would EMP North America, in order to prevent any retaliation. America would kill each other for the remaining food because there would be no aid coming from the East because China would have EMP'ed them as well. Once the Chinese see that America has killed itself and died, they would claim they are just helping, but would never leave. Besides, 80 million people, some too weak to fight, some with no military experience what-so-ever, fighting a country with a population of 1.6 BILLION? Yeah, fair match, I'd say.

EDIT: No one would even know it was them. People would suspect Middle Eastern countries because China would be offering aid to America.

Some things you have to take into account. Fallout is based on Retro-future SCIENCE! Not "real" science. So you have things like robot butlers cold fusion, ray guns and Power armor. However then mircochip wasn't invented. Everything ran on Vacuum tubes and such. So EMP might not have the impact you think on technology. You have to read the fallout bibles to get more info on events too. All mutations(aside from ghouls) are do to FEV (Either pre or post war experiments or exposure.)

West Tec FEV research compound was hit directly with a Nuke and spread the FEV into the air stream so everyone on the planet get a dose. Then you have people like Richard Grey and Harold finding Marposia Military base where they where doing Experiments before the war to make "super soldiers" with FEV and get a huge exposure to it Richard turned into the Master and Harold turned into a Ghoul like mutant. Then The Master starts abducting humans and making a super mutant army.

This is just the hardships from FO1....But low and behold you still have farming communities, Trade between towns via Caravans. Hell the Hub was even a trade city for goods.