|
Cleanup (Issue: Project W missed this one.)
To meet Nukapedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. Please help by improving the article.
|
|---|
|
Vehicles are devices that are designed or used to transport people or cargo from one point to another. Vehicles span a variety of categories, including cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, and trains.
Background[]
Before the Great War, vehicles used fuel sources such as steam, batteries, fusion, and petrol.[1][2] One of the most important advancements was the introduction of ceramic-based paint formulations in the 2070s that proved extremely resistant to fading and rust, preserving a large number of vehicles for future use and restoration.[Non-game 1]
After the war, aircraft known as Vertibirds were used by various post-War factions including the Enclave, New California Republic, and Brotherhood of Steel. An airship called the Prydwen was built and utilized by the Brotherhood as well, which served as a docking station for vertibirds. The NCR utilizes locomotives in the New Vegas area for transporting construction materials.[3]
They also utilize a monorail for moving troops to and from the New Vegas Strip.[4] Similar to that monorail there is another one called the Nuka-Express for getting to Nuka-World.
In Fallout 2, the Enclave had the working oil tanker, PMV Valdez to go back and forth from their oil rig.[5] The Boomers in Fallout: New Vegas, with the aid of the Courier, wish to recover a pre-War bomber from the bottom of Lake Mead.[6] A cult of ghouls led by Jason Bright attempted to repair REPCONN rockets in order to go on a "Great Journey" to the "Far Beyond." [7]
A wide variety of wrecked vehicles can be found throughout the wastelands, and these vehicles are utilized for building materials and fortifications. A few functional automobiles exist in New California, such as steam trucks and a car known as a Highwayman.[8] In Appalachia, in the immediate aftermath of the war, vehicles were still used by survivors, such as a raider gang based in the abandoned Bog Town that utilized trucks during their raids.[9] Members of the Free Radicals attempted to repair pre-War vehicles but only automated vehicles such as cargobots and vertibots are operational.[10]
Behind the scenes[]
- Chris Avellone floated the idea that the theoretical ratio of working cars in the wasteland is 1 for every 200 people, and even then, they might be just local clunkers.[Non-game 2] In Fallout Bible 6, vehicles exist in New California, despite not being seen in-game.[Non-game 3]
References[]
- ↑ Museum of Technology terminal entries; Museum Information, Transportation Exhibits
- ↑ The Chosen One: "Do you have a battery that I could use to fix a car?"
Skeeter: "Funny you should ask that. Ya see, cars use replaceable fuel cells, or batteries, for fuel. What usually broke down was the Fuel Cell Controller. Most amateur mechanics jist assume that it’s the battery itself. But you know what ass-uming things does, dontcha?"
(Skeeter's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Where does the concrete come from?"
Ike: "Most of the limestone comes from Quarry Junction out west. The supply had stopped for awhile because of a Deathclaw problem. I heard some badass wastelander killed the Deathclaws, and deliveries of limestone have been coming in again. I don't think they've gotten the trains up and running yet, but most of the concrete plant workers have come back to town now. Good for business."
(Ike's dialogue) - ↑ Ronald Curtis: "If you haven't noticed, the NCR bolsters its presence on the Strip from here. Sends troopers on the monorail in shifts. The monorail lets them occupy two positions for the price of one. It's a supply line that's immune to raiders and other hindrances on the ground."
(Ronald Curtis' dialogue) - ↑ The Chosen One: "How do I pilot it?"
A. Ron Meyers: "How do you pilot this rig? Fill 'er up with some gas - try the Hubologists or the Shi after you've taken care of everything else - and press the button. The computer will take care of the rest, if it's still working. It'll sail right out to the oil rig, and they won't fire at you because you've got the IFF transponder. Just make sure you've got what you need to access everything: FOB, working computer, and fuel. Easy enough, huh?"
(A. Ron Meyers' dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Lady in the water? What's that?"
Loyal: "A long time ago - long before the war that killed just about everything that ever lived - a bomber crashed not far from here. A bomber was a flying contraption that could drop explosives down on anything it flew over. But anyway, moving on... This bomber crashed down in Lake Mead, pretty damn near intact. When we got to Nellis, see, I found this article in a magazine all about it. There was another B-29 around here, part of a museum. Couldn't fly, but had a lot of spare parts, see? Get where I'm going? Since I was a young man, I've dreamed of raising that Lady from the lake and bringing her back to life. What do you say?"
(Loyal's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "So the "Great Journey" will use those rockets?"
Chris Haversam: "Obviously. It's taken months, but I've nearly got them in working order. Soon they'll take us to the Far Beyond. I was skeptical at first, of course - being a man of science - but Jason is certain, and I believe in Jason."
(Chris Haversam's dialogue) - ↑ Ghoul refugee:"The super mutants attacked. We were slaughtered. They had guns and bombs, even some steam trucks. They killed my friends. The mutants just butchered us."
Vault Dweller: "What's a steam truck?"
Ghoul refugee: "Some big thing that moved on wheels but without any brahmin."
(Ghoul refugee's dialogue) - ↑ End of Bog Town
- ↑ Lugnuts vehicle modifications
- Non-game
- ↑ The Art of Fallout 4: "AUTOMOBILES REPRESENT one of our best opportunities to convey a sense of the design style of the world before the war. So much of American culture is expressed through the colorful cars and trucks people once drove, and although none of them actually work anymore (and also have a tendency to explode), they're one of the most common elements you'll see as you explore the Wasteland. We spent a fair amount of time designing and creating different vehicles. We needed plenty of variety and wanted to use them frequently as set dressing. Each model had a range of colors and conditions, from rusted-out hulks to fairly intact vehicles with the paint still in good condition. We really liked to add a little style with the use of bright accent colors on the cars and other background pieces. Luckily the space- age ceramic-based paint formulations used in the 2070s were extremely resistant to fading and rust.
The large sedan seen here returns from Fallout 3, along with the classic Fusion Flea, but we also have a host of new vehicles that were late-model designs at the time of the war. The coupe and the sports car have sleek, streamlined styling with rounded cabins and bubble-shaped cockpits. But due to the engineering limitations of the bulky mini reactor engines, the packaging efficiency for most of the vehicles is poor.
Our aircraft designs were revisited for this project as well. Not having a massive crashed airliner in Fallout 3 always felt like a missed opportunity, given the precariousness of being in the air at the moment of nuclear devastation. This time, since an airport is a major location in our world, we envisioned majestic flying-wing jumbo jets as the preferred method of long-distance travel. These started out much, much bigger than what we ended up with in the game, and even still, the plane wreckage is a bit oversized in comparison to the footprint of our airport.
However, one vehicle whose size is both impressive and appropriate is the Prydwen, the only postwar-built airship. We went with a full-on diesel-punk design, combining elements of Zeppelins and naval vessels and using mysterious technologies (beyond simple hydrogen) to keep it afloat. Its complement of Vertibirds are of a different variety than the gunships used by the Enclave-better suited to troop transport but modified for deployment from the airship." - ↑ Fallout Bible 5: "6. About how many working or servicable cars are there at the time of FO2? Obviously there must be more then one, since the guy in new reno has a garage fully staffed, and most likely has a large supply of parts( im assuming that was what the warehouse building next to the garage was filled up with, you couldnt pick up anything off of them)
Probably not too many, but I don't know the exact number. The real problem isn't fuel, it's mostly tires and other degradable parts that have gone to the dogs in the past 100 years. For every two hundred or so people, there might be one working vehicle, and even "the local clunker" wouldn't be up to factory specs. NCR is rumored to have a mechanized vehicle division outside of its farming vehicles, but the number of vehicles in the division is unknown." - ↑ Fallout Bible 6: "6. Last update, you said there were 1/200 cars/people ration in the NCR. If there were so many working cars in NCR, where were they?
They're there. It's game logic. You don't see them for the same reason NCR is only three maps, only has 1 councilor/senator, and only about 40-50 people in its city limits. That's why the Chop Shop in Reno exists, why the bum outside of NCR offers to watch a car for you before you show up in one, and a reason that NCR built a garage in Shady Sands.
So to explain "game logic" in this instance, there's nothing precious about building a car of your own if you can steal one – or if somebody else in town has one. Or in the words of one designer (me), "there's no good reason why a PC would want to undertake a fucking huge Fed Ex quest to rebuild one if they can jack one from the locals." The last part is especially true considering town-wide mass murder is possible in both Fallout 1 and 2.
And before you get the image of tanks and jeeps flying around everywhere with heavy machine guns mounted on the back, most of that junk is old tractors and crap like taxis, old buses, snowplows, and even old construction equipment. It's possible that mysterious old steam-truck mentioned in the bowels of the F1 data archive is still lumbering around somewhere. The caravan houses of the Hub, in particular, around the time in Fallout 2, have been looking to further its trade influence, and new vehicles (and types of transport, such as trains, boats, or barges) have been eagerly sought after for carrying large amounts of trade goods vast distances. Good ol' human greed will move mountains. Or at least rebuild things that can. Once they learn of the Enclave's presence in the North, they are likely to have huge bounties promised for Vertibird plans - or better, a working Vertibird."