Fallout Lore | Did the US forces pull out of China before the nukes went off?

A constant idea within the Fallout community is that Fallout 3 and 4s settlements, and the East Coast in general, are "less developed" than the West Coast, often citing a handful of West-Coast towns as evidence.

Now, there are definitely some more developed towns on the West Coast, as evidenced by Arroyo's slideshow image. However, this development came with an influx of Vault Dwellers and a GECK, the two things also used for Fallout 2s Vault City. The only other town as built up in Fallout 2 is the New California Republic, which also had a vast amount of resources and sway.

These three settlements are by and large exceptional, especially when compared to the rest of Fallout 2s settlements, which are either shacks or built into pre-war ruins. Even New Reno is built into pre-war buildings, and Gecko is all shacks.

Fallout 1s settlements are all largely along the same lines, although Shady Sands, for instance, is just as much of a collection of shacks as anywhere else given it lacks both power and plumbing, relying instead on wells.

Now, I'm going to look towards the settlements of New Vegas, as they present a more baseline example of wasteland settlements. They never had the GECKs or knowledge of Vault Dwellers, but also never faced the constant issues such as mutants or the Institute that have plagued DC and Boston respectively.

Here, settlements are made of pre-war buildings and post-war shacks, the adobe of California absent. There's not many fully post-war settlements or camps, and those that are are either made up of tents, such as the Khan's encampment, or shacks such as Camp Forlorn Hope.

No long-term entirely post war settlements exist aside from arguably the Khan's camp. There's a few possible reasons why, and I would hazard a guess that the main reason is that there was no real reason to build up new homes and towns when so much pre-war infrastructure survived, in part because of the efforts of Mr. House.

With this base-line of sorts established (no large-scale nuclear detonation, but no GECKs or vault dweller populations either), we can now look towards the East Coast, starting with Appalachia. Now, Appalachia notably has had two waves of settlement- the first, by post-war survivors, and the second by survivors from other regions returning to the region.

Of the first wave, we see they stay mostly to towns, which makes sense given most of them already lived in said places. There's a few fully-post war settlements, mostly following the shack design although Appalachia was also home to more than a few pre-war shantytowns in the Cranberry Bog. For the most part, people stayed where they already were, with the existing infrastructure being kept going, such as nuclear power plants.

Of the second wave, we see examples of re-purposing existing ruins for the most part, making some new structures. This is most prominent at Crater, the raider settlement, where the existing pieces of the crashed space station were used to create shelter.

There's also one large example of an almost entirely post-war settlement with Foundation, which is mostly constructed from milled wood. The inhabitants of Foundation vary, but their leadership consists of pre-war construction workers, people best suited for rebuilding. Foundation could be seen as an East-Coast Shady Sands, albeit with more infrastructure.

At the moment we don't know the ultimate fate of Appalachia as Fallout 76 is a live-service game. Whether or not these settlements last, expand, or fall apart is unclear.

Close by to WV is Washington DC, or the Capitol Wasteland. The Capitol Wasteland is home to a number of settlements, ranging from wholly post-war to pre-war ruins, with some variation in-between. The best example of a wholly post-war settlement is Megaton, which is entirely constructed from salvaged plane parts and other sheet-metal. Megaton has running water and power, and while it's not the most well-off settlement, it does well enough. There is also the settlement of Rivet City, which is housed entirely within one "ruin", that being an aircraft carrier. Rivet City has power and water as well, although there is also chronic illness caused by rust in the lower decks. Underworld is another prominent settlement built in a pre-war ruin, and home to most of the region's feral ghouls.

The Capitol Wasteland does feature a few smaller towns that are far worse for wear than the larger settlements, such as the often-besieged Big Town, where Little Lamplight residents are banished to once they're too old. Rubble piles up in the buildings, and broken appliances with no purpose can be found in most of the houses. The Capitol Wasteland, aside from being so saturated by radiation most people left it for other regions, such as West Virginia, has been under constant assault by Super Mutants as early as 2078, meaning they've been a constant threat for 200 years.

Other regions I've mentioned had to deal with raiders and the like, but none of them were under constant attack by an enemy unwilling to reason for literal centuries. What society does exist in the Capitol Wasteland has managed to grow despite constant attacks from an enemy stronger and tougher than themselves, without any organizations such as the Brotherhood to help or any methods of dealing with the marauding mutants permanently. In short, it exists in a constant worse-case scenario for survival and long term growth. Despite this, settlements that are as built up if not more built than Nevada settlements exist.

Finally, we have Boston, which is arguably the most interesting when it comes to post-war settlements. Boston and the surrounding area is home to a number of small farms and lone traders, as well as larger settlements. Two of its largest settlements, Quincy and University Point, were wiped out by the Gunners and Institute respectively. The Institute is arguably the strongest force against rebuilding in the Commonwealth, having routinely tampered with the outside world by creating super mutants until 2287, having done so for the past 100 years. This would mirror the problems of the Capitol Wasteland, except that Boston is fertile in terms of farmland. The Institute has also taken other measures, such as killing an NCR-like alliance between settlements, or replacing settlement leaders to cause strife.

However, even with their efforts to destabilize, entirely post-war communities such as Covenant still exist. Covenant is unique in that its construction is well-done, and in general the town is a far-cry from the ramshackle nature of some of the Commonwealth's smaller settlements. Other, larger towns such as Diamond City have impressive infrastructure, such as a nuclear reactor built into the town's noodle-shop. There's the still-operating Vault 81, which trades with other settlements although they don't spread out from the vault very far.

Boston is unarguably less-developed than other comparable regions when it comes to its settlements, but it's also proliferated by small farms. The environment of the Commonwealth being suitable for farming makes it far easier to spread out, and efforts by the Institute to keep the area unorganized have made the idea of bringing settlements together for a unified government infeasible. Boston likely has the resources and knowledge to grow further, but it is unlikely to without the destruction of the Institute and changes in leadership.

So where does that leave the East Coast/West Coast development debate? I think there's a few key points to take away.

The West Coast's more developed cities are by and large an exception, not a norm. They are settlements that benefited heavily from knowledge and resources inaccessible to the average wastelander.
Areas with infrastructure but not GECKs or other aid largely still live within that infrastructure, only constructing out of necessity.
People with the knowledge of how to build, and resources to do so do build, but this knowledge and these resources are rarely seen decades after the war.
Areas in constant conflict as well as no GECKs or other sources of resources and knowledge build some, but remain disorganized, either due to manufactured conflict or actual conflict.
The West Coast was simply luckier when it came to their problems.

Ultimately, the East Coast doesn't have the same kind of unified governance California has, but their individual settlements can and do come close to settlements in better-off areas such as Nevada. Their lack of "progress" is an issue that can be surmounted by dealing with threats and organizing governments, not an impossible task.

submitted by /u/Gearsthecool
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The location of Vault-Tec corporate headquarters

Posted: 11 May 2020 03:56 PM PDT

It is mentioned in the terminal in fault 111 that they are waiting from the all-clear from headquarters to exit the vault. Is this because they never wanted to open the Vault or because the Vault-tec headquarters is a fine ash.

submitted by /u/PristineMeasurement1
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What is everything we know about the aliens?

Posted: 11 May 2020 01:29 PM PDT

I recently got FO3 (its awesome) and i am playing through mother ship zeta i remember aliens in FO4 and a faintly remember some in FNV im just really interested about the zetans (i think there called)

submitted by /u/shaunderford
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Fallout 1 and 2 - What caused the decline of the Brotherhood?

Posted: 11 May 2020 03:15 PM PDT

So in the canon ending to F1 the Brotherhood becomes a major research and development hub that while not exactly "social", somewhat opened its doors to the outside world a little more.

However by F2, I beleive it is Mathew who says the Brotherhood had shut themselves off for too long and it caused a slow decline for them.

Is there any reason why the positive ending of F1 led to the poor state they find themselves in in F2? Secondary question - when did the Brotherhood become aware of the Enclave? If my lore is right the Enclave became active in the west in around 2236 when they wanted to open Mariposa (correct if wrong). How long did it take for the Brotherhood to catch wind of them, given the NCR and other factions seem largely unaware of their operation by the time the game starts?

Sorry for long post

submitted by /u/super1422
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Why is the power armor different from fallout 1 and 2 to 3 and NV to 4

Posted: 11 May 2020 06:38 AM PDT

submitted by /u/MarineViper3
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Is anything from FO:Brotherhood of Steel(that terrible ps2 game) canon?

Posted: 11 May 2020 07:31 AM PDT

I got curious to see what was in that game since everyone says it is the worst game from the series(and it indeed is, lol) and found a playtrough of it in Caedos channel(recommend you watch since it has little to no views and he is one fo the people that sacrificed a part of their mind and money to play that thing) and caught myself wondering if anything from that game is actually considered canon.

submitted by /u/Otaldolitro
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How do mutations work in lore? Are they just a gameplay mechanic?

Posted: 11 May 2020 08:28 AM PDT

submitted by /u/Tamashi55
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Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Fallout Lore | Did the US forces pull out of China before the nukes went off?

Fallout Lore | Did the US forces pull out of China before the nukes went off?

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