No need to rant about Fallout 3 that hasn't been said about it extensively but its obvious that a lot of the world building of Bethesda's Fallout 3 didn't make much sense. That was known and discussed then and it's known and discussed now and known and discussed in between.
A lot of the criticisms of Megaton can be applied to Fallout 3 in general and a lot of it is due to the fact that the Capitol Wasteland looks like the post-apocalypse occurred like twenty years ago, not two hundred. Megaton for example has a water processing plant, and brahmin (or rather a single brahmin) but it doesn't have any farms or brahmin pens and the closest I think it has to a food source is that respawning molerat pack on the far side of the Megaton Wall.
I think the main assumption I can make is that Megaton's settlers for the most part are transient and survive by scavenging. Which makes sense in the setting. Everyone talks about scavenging. Three Dog and Moira etc even talks about it. Somehow scavenging for centuries old food is a legitimate and sustainable pursuit in the Capitol Wasteland. Who knows how or why? It just is. Plus as Lucas Simms and others say, its hard to get a home in Megaton and most of the people seem to be transient types who live in common houses and likely scavenge for a living which is just wild. But that's Fallout 3 for you.
Some of the other towns like Canterbury Commons, the Temple of the Union and Republic of Dave have brahmin pens as well. Does Arefu or Big Town or Tenpenny Tower whatever have any agriculture? Girdershade is literally two shacks. I assume that Big Town survives by scavenging (also Big Town-Little Lamplight is wonky as well but again, I don't care... its kinda dumb... really dumb but not quite game breaking for me despite the inherent nonsense of it all) like with how you have to rescue some of them from the Germantown Police Department.
I actually like the locations of Big Town, and Arefu, and Tenpenny Tower but again, it's very wonky if you look at it too much. I assume that scavenging and maybe hunting/gathering is the main trade people engage in and if you squint at it, there's a lively caravan trade as well so maybe it somehow works... somehow. It doesn't work by the way, but enough for SoD in my humble opinion.
Fallout 3 has inferior worldbuilding when it comes to logic and reason compared to other Fallout games. But some people, not me personally, really like the games post-apocalyptic gray and dark setting of being a proper wasteland even if it is two centuries after the fact. I guess adding farms or ranches or workshops for scavengers to make things is all just a bit too much for them to include.
And you can go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about this but meh... you already get the point. I like Megaton. If there was ever a reboot of Megaton, I'd try and make it bigger. Maybe give them a distillery... or a workshop where they build things to trade. Maybe a molerat ranch. I dunno. Maybe they're worried that the trade with Grayditch is interrupted.
And you could just (as some mods have done) just add more farms and crops to the settlements. I like Arefu and the idea of a settlement on top of a highway bridge. I think it's a neat concept. They could've done more with it. Maybe make it more clear that Tenpenny Tower is somehow a community for wealthy Wastelanders. Like there is a stable currency in the Capitol Wasteland. You can have your fancy residential tower with a stable economy. It's not too far fetched if every town is connected by a caravan. And honestly, Tenpenny Tower actually makes more sense then the other post-apocalyptic wealthy community that comes to mind, Fiddlers Green from the Romero zombie film Land of the Dead where a bunch of rich people live in a luxurious tower surrounded by slums and just... be rich?
I could even like the idea of Big Town and Little Lamplight. The concept as is, feels pretty dumb to me and obviously it reduces choice due to Little Lamplight being what it is. But I could get behind the concept of a safe hidden community for rugrats who eventually have to migrate elsewhere. I mean there was a variation of that plot point in the backstory of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Imagine some weird hidden settlement where kids are raised by robots or something, then at age sixteen are punted into the waste because of automated processes or something. That's a neat concept.
The point is, Fallout 3 is generally... as games go and as game worlds go... I feel its pretty clearly above average. There's obvious flaws and obvious ways it could be improved.
A lot of the criticisms of Megaton can be applied to Fallout 3 in general and a lot of it is due to the fact that the Capitol Wasteland looks like the post-apocalypse occurred like twenty years ago, not two hundred. Megaton for example has a water processing plant, and brahmin (or rather a single brahmin) but it doesn't have any farms or brahmin pens and the closest I think it has to a food source is that respawning molerat pack on the far side of the Megaton Wall.
I think the main assumption I can make is that Megaton's settlers for the most part are transient and survive by scavenging. Which makes sense in the setting. Everyone talks about scavenging. Three Dog and Moira etc even talks about it. Somehow scavenging for centuries old food is a legitimate and sustainable pursuit in the Capitol Wasteland. Who knows how or why? It just is. Plus as Lucas Simms and others say, its hard to get a home in Megaton and most of the people seem to be transient types who live in common houses and likely scavenge for a living which is just wild. But that's Fallout 3 for you.
Some of the other towns like Canterbury Commons, the Temple of the Union and Republic of Dave have brahmin pens as well. Does Arefu or Big Town or Tenpenny Tower whatever have any agriculture? Girdershade is literally two shacks. I assume that Big Town survives by scavenging (also Big Town-Little Lamplight is wonky as well but again, I don't care... its kinda dumb... really dumb but not quite game breaking for me despite the inherent nonsense of it all) like with how you have to rescue some of them from the Germantown Police Department.
I actually like the locations of Big Town, and Arefu, and Tenpenny Tower but again, it's very wonky if you look at it too much. I assume that scavenging and maybe hunting/gathering is the main trade people engage in and if you squint at it, there's a lively caravan trade as well so maybe it somehow works... somehow. It doesn't work by the way, but enough for SoD in my humble opinion.
Fallout 3 has inferior worldbuilding when it comes to logic and reason compared to other Fallout games. But some people, not me personally, really like the games post-apocalyptic gray and dark setting of being a proper wasteland even if it is two centuries after the fact. I guess adding farms or ranches or workshops for scavengers to make things is all just a bit too much for them to include.
And you can go on for paragraphs and paragraphs about this but meh... you already get the point. I like Megaton. If there was ever a reboot of Megaton, I'd try and make it bigger. Maybe give them a distillery... or a workshop where they build things to trade. Maybe a molerat ranch. I dunno. Maybe they're worried that the trade with Grayditch is interrupted.
And you could just (as some mods have done) just add more farms and crops to the settlements. I like Arefu and the idea of a settlement on top of a highway bridge. I think it's a neat concept. They could've done more with it. Maybe make it more clear that Tenpenny Tower is somehow a community for wealthy Wastelanders. Like there is a stable currency in the Capitol Wasteland. You can have your fancy residential tower with a stable economy. It's not too far fetched if every town is connected by a caravan. And honestly, Tenpenny Tower actually makes more sense then the other post-apocalyptic wealthy community that comes to mind, Fiddlers Green from the Romero zombie film Land of the Dead where a bunch of rich people live in a luxurious tower surrounded by slums and just... be rich?
I could even like the idea of Big Town and Little Lamplight. The concept as is, feels pretty dumb to me and obviously it reduces choice due to Little Lamplight being what it is. But I could get behind the concept of a safe hidden community for rugrats who eventually have to migrate elsewhere. I mean there was a variation of that plot point in the backstory of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Imagine some weird hidden settlement where kids are raised by robots or something, then at age sixteen are punted into the waste because of automated processes or something. That's a neat concept.
The point is, Fallout 3 is generally... as games go and as game worlds go... I feel its pretty clearly above average. There's obvious flaws and obvious ways it could be improved.
