History Headscratchers / Fallout2024

In between the time that Norm and Chet explore the destroyed Vault 32 and Barb's re-opening it up to colonists from 33, someone did a major renovation on the whole thing. Clearly it couldn't have been anyone from 33, as they had to keep the secret of what really happened there from them. My assumption at the time was that Vault 31 people had come in and done it in secret. But on retrospect, the reveal of Vault 31's actual inhabitants means that's not really an option. So how did 32 get magically rebuilt to pristine shape?

[[folder:Who cleaned up Vault 22?]]

** It's probably a combination of the Ghoul realizing that Maximus wasn't a serious threat and just being baffled by the situation. It should be noted that the Ghoul doesn't go out of his way to slaughter people unless it furthers his goals or unless he feels threatened. When he murdered those who rescued him he was simultaneously silencing them (since they at least knew about the man who buried him) and stealkng their supplies. With the people of Filly he was being shot at from multiple directions which is enough to kill almost anyone even with his skill level. With the NCR ranger's son he essentially identified him as a future threat which is something he's probably had to deal with over the centuries. With Maximus the Ghoul was facing an opponent that clearly didn't know how to use the power armor and wasn't even seriously trying to kill him. He probably thought Maximus was just a young boy who had scavenged some power armor and was trying to defend the town. So he humiliated Maximus to show him he was out of his depth and then left him alive because there was no threat.

* I understand that they're there for Hank (as well as revenge for Shady Sands), but... almost all of those people were innocent of his crimes. If anything, they were his victims as well. How could a supposed BigGood justify such a brutal massacre?

** A very good question. Mr House was always taken off guard, and many other Vault Tec personnel failed to reach the Vaults in time.

A common point of contention is it's located way too close to LA and the Boneyard when in previous Fallout, it's much father.

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* I understand it might be TV magic to show the effect of the fusion, but how can a nuked city have all its infrastructure intact, if all that was needed was a poer supply it would not be an abandoned city.

*** This misses a few details. For starters, [[SpaceCompression]] is in play for all the games. Rivet City, for example, is on an old ship. A Nimitz class carrier has a crew of 5000, but that's with external support and supplies. But it gives an idea of how many people there is room for. The USS Enterprise aircraft carrier can support a crew of a little under 6,000. Much of it might not be livable, due to flooding, wreck, lack of food, etc, but there is living space at least enough. Not remotely close to Shady Sands but still a lot, especially given the Capital Wasteland's clean water shortage is fixed due to Project Purity and Lyons giving free water. That alone would see a rise in population or at least a decrease in death rate in the short run. By Fallout 4, they export materials and clean water. According to Wasteland Warfare, Megaton is one of the largest cities in the Capital Wasteland and only surpassed by Rivet City in population, which either means it's big or indirectly damns it by faint praise. Next, the Brotherhood of Steel's population is another uncertainty due to [[SpaceCompression]], recruitment of wastelanders, and Outcasts defecting. Then we have inevitable new recruits from after Fallout 3. A few terminal entries mention members with family in the Capital Wasteland implying they either settled there, are stationed there, or the Lyons outside recruitment policy continues. Additionally, in Fallout 4, rebuilding the Commonwealth is one of the themes with settlements being a core feature. We don't know how successful the Sole Survivor is, if they are at all, but at minimum we still have [[SpaceCompression]]. The player has the choice of saying "I just killed hundreds of people. I don't find it very funny" to fellow Brotherhood members if that ending was chosen regarding destroying the Institute. The Institute Facility in-game clearly lacks that capacity, but in lore they do. The real life Fenway Park can accommodate many thousands of spectators at least and Diamond City was founded in 2130 and seems to lack the overwhelming clean water shortage the majority of the Capital Wasteland has. Paranoid about Synths but that's not a population cap problem. In any event, we are not given enough to estimate populations besides "More than the game is showing".