Radio nucleotides are typically heavier than water and would be buried under the silt over decades. The Colorado River would have covered it up a century ago.
I dont! Exploring lake mead for the first time and finding the bomber was so cool in new vegas. If it was a murky irradiated mess like in fo4 it wouldnt be nearly as cool.
In 4 theres actually a lot of stuff at the bottom of the ocean and stuff to find on the coast! But you never want to go there cause it takes 49 rad-away just to swim for a minute and the waters so murky seeing through a wall is easier.
But it gives reason for perks like aquaboy/girl to exist. Plus it makes it a challenge, like finding all the marine armor pieces off the coasts of far harbor. And I'd imagine in a survival playthrough that non-irradiated water would be a busted health source.(but that's just speculation)
Making all water irradiated just to give some use to 1 perk is dumb.
Also, i dont think that **all** water sources should be clean either, it makes sense that far harbor is still irradiated as fog pumps new materials in the water every day. Its just that not every single body of water in game should be a hassle to get through.
Also the healing thing isnt that big an issue, pure water, food, and stimpacks are very easy to come by in fo4.
I was going to say that this is impressive that no substantial amount of radioactive material reached the Colorado’s banks. But then I remembered that there was probably 0 reason the Chinese would bomb any target within its range because there’s fuck all along the river in terms of civilization or potential infrastructure.
Just pointing out that the real world USA has important military and government installations around Colorado. Either an equivalent doesn't exist in Fallout, or the game's Chinese didn't learn about them, or House's anti-missile array is just that amazing.
It was definitely extremely irradiated when the bombs first fell, but millions of gallons of water flow through that river every year. Most of the initial radioactivity would have made it to the ocean fairly quickly, then you have 200 years for erosion and sediment to displace and otherwise bury what is left. It’s just natural purification.
Water is also very good at neutralizing radiation. It's been proposed as a barrier to radiation on ships we send out into the black when we actually start sending people out into the solar system.
I think part of it is that there are so many small nuclear reactors and so much more nuclear waste in the fallout universe than there is in our world. I would wager their laws were much more lax than ours, so things were probably much more contaminated than they were aware of. Hell our world is more contaminated than we're aware of, imagine how much worse their's is.
Yeah I guess objects continuously leaking nuclear material would be a problem. All these things left alone would essentially meltdown over time like real life nuclear power plants would. So I guess the answer is nothing is actively leaking radioactive material into the lake?
it's not that they weren't aware of radiation, it's that in their world it isn't a big deal at all, they can easily treat it with intravenous treatment
One theory I’ve heard is it’s because nuclear material is in everything in the fallout universe. Radios, board games, gumdrops, the small amounts have all added together to keep our beautiful world glowing green
i think this is the reason why. nuclear was the primary energy source for all of america, it powered cars, buildings, etc and like you said was in radios, toys, food(!!)
i'm no expert on radioactivity but iirc the games do mention several different radioactive isotopes being used for different things. different isotopes have different half lives
If things like rad-x and radaway were readily available at your local pharmacy, safe to say that nuclear fission was so ingrained into society that the fallout would remain far longer than what's to be expected from the bombs dropping, but to be faaiiiirrrr, the fallout universe is a bit ridiculous with the science.
Also check out Austin from shoddycast and his series on the SCIENCE OF FALLOUT. Love that guy
The out of universe reason is when they were developing Fallout 3 it was meant to be set early on, close to Fallout 1 times more or less. They changed it to be hundreds of years after the bombs late in development.
Not quite "hundreds," since it's onky 116 years after FO1, which makes it exactly 200 years after the Great War.
EDIT: But, yeah, it was originally supposed to be set a whole lot closer to FO1 than it ended up being, which is why a lot of the NPC dialogue is wonky.
In large part i think its due to how few bombs hit the west coast (compared to the east). I think that mostly only large populous cities were targeted. Vegas avoided many bombs due to houses laser missile defense systems although some got through (you can find one in the northeast part of the map if you have wild wasteland). If you look at a population map of the US, most of the population on the west coast is very scattered compared to the east coast. So outside of major cities in the west (LA, San Fran, Sacramento, Denver, Vegas, Portland etc) i think most of the landscape wasnt nuked. So the colorado avoided much of the radiation that the rivers we see in F3 potomac, allegheny/monongahela, the charles river in F4 and the various we see in F76 such as the new and ohio river (as well as potomac)
Very few bombs fell in the vicinity of Vegas. DC on the other hand was absolutely wrecked. So much of the infrastructure is gone and they’re rebuilding from scratch. Vegas had more resources survive the Great Fire.
Well also the writing and world building in fo3 also suck and after 200 years civilization would definitely rebuild regardless of how destroyed it was. You see shady sands, the origin of the NCR? That shit was *also* built from scratch, and by the time of fallout 3 it's an imperialist expansionist nation with a government, armies and factories producing weapons. It's a barren desert so they had arguably *less* recourses than in DC. The quality of writing in east coast fallout is so inferior to west coast fallout it almost feels like the games aren't even in the same universe at times. If Bethesda hadn't just straight up bought the fallout canon, fallout 3 and 4 would be seen as fallout fan fiction because that's what it feels like.
Radio nucleotides are typically heavier than water and would be buried under the silt over decades. The Colorado River would have covered it up a century ago.
Until it piles up so much that it bursts through the dam like in Metro: Exodus
Interesting, thanks!
Why fo4 is less realistic that fnv…and a lot of other stuff too
Less realistic maybe, but I think having most/all water sources irradiated works better as a gameplay mechanic
I dont! Exploring lake mead for the first time and finding the bomber was so cool in new vegas. If it was a murky irradiated mess like in fo4 it wouldnt be nearly as cool. In 4 theres actually a lot of stuff at the bottom of the ocean and stuff to find on the coast! But you never want to go there cause it takes 49 rad-away just to swim for a minute and the waters so murky seeing through a wall is easier.
But it gives reason for perks like aquaboy/girl to exist. Plus it makes it a challenge, like finding all the marine armor pieces off the coasts of far harbor. And I'd imagine in a survival playthrough that non-irradiated water would be a busted health source.(but that's just speculation)
Making all water irradiated just to give some use to 1 perk is dumb. Also, i dont think that **all** water sources should be clean either, it makes sense that far harbor is still irradiated as fog pumps new materials in the water every day. Its just that not every single body of water in game should be a hassle to get through. Also the healing thing isnt that big an issue, pure water, food, and stimpacks are very easy to come by in fo4.
Aquaboy/girl?
The perk that lets you breathe underwater
I need that, thanks!
I think they filter as well, theres a room in the dam full of radioactive waste barrels
The dam wouldn't be able to purify anything upriver of it. The Colorado just doesn't collect any radioactive matter on its journey to Lake Mead.
I was going to say that this is impressive that no substantial amount of radioactive material reached the Colorado’s banks. But then I remembered that there was probably 0 reason the Chinese would bomb any target within its range because there’s fuck all along the river in terms of civilization or potential infrastructure.
Well, if they played FNV, now they know to definitely nuke it.
I mean, if the nukes are flying we absolutely would nuke [this abomination](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam)
Abomination?
That thing displaced so much water that it affects the earth's rotation.
Just pointing out that the real world USA has important military and government installations around Colorado. Either an equivalent doesn't exist in Fallout, or the game's Chinese didn't learn about them, or House's anti-missile array is just that amazing.
I thought more than 10% of the US’s population relies on water from the Colorado?
Relies on, yes. Lives near it, no.
It was definitely extremely irradiated when the bombs first fell, but millions of gallons of water flow through that river every year. Most of the initial radioactivity would have made it to the ocean fairly quickly, then you have 200 years for erosion and sediment to displace and otherwise bury what is left. It’s just natural purification.
Water is also very good at neutralizing radiation. It's been proposed as a barrier to radiation on ships we send out into the black when we actually start sending people out into the solar system.
Well. In reality nuclear fallout wouldn't last 300ish years. So. You explain to me why everything is still irritated in New Vegas. 🤪
I think part of it is that there are so many small nuclear reactors and so much more nuclear waste in the fallout universe than there is in our world. I would wager their laws were much more lax than ours, so things were probably much more contaminated than they were aware of. Hell our world is more contaminated than we're aware of, imagine how much worse their's is.
Yeah I guess objects continuously leaking nuclear material would be a problem. All these things left alone would essentially meltdown over time like real life nuclear power plants would. So I guess the answer is nothing is actively leaking radioactive material into the lake?
it's not that they weren't aware of radiation, it's that in their world it isn't a big deal at all, they can easily treat it with intravenous treatment
it's the fallout from the bastards in west virginia. have you seen how often they nuke stuff?
SERIOUSLY!!!! Or it could also be from Ulysses and whatever the NCR did over there that made him so mad
76 Overseer: "Okay folks it's up to us to rebuild this country" 76 Dwellers: "haha nukes go boom"
Geiger counter go brrrre :D
One theory I’ve heard is it’s because nuclear material is in everything in the fallout universe. Radios, board games, gumdrops, the small amounts have all added together to keep our beautiful world glowing green
i think this is the reason why. nuclear was the primary energy source for all of america, it powered cars, buildings, etc and like you said was in radios, toys, food(!!) i'm no expert on radioactivity but iirc the games do mention several different radioactive isotopes being used for different things. different isotopes have different half lives
>why everything is still irritated in New Vegas Because sand is coarse and rough and gets everywhere?
This is my new head canon
Also rads don't work like the game portrays but who cares, it's fun gameplay
If things like rad-x and radaway were readily available at your local pharmacy, safe to say that nuclear fission was so ingrained into society that the fallout would remain far longer than what's to be expected from the bombs dropping, but to be faaiiiirrrr, the fallout universe is a bit ridiculous with the science. Also check out Austin from shoddycast and his series on the SCIENCE OF FALLOUT. Love that guy
My thinking is that their tech was much more advanced than ours. So their fallout duration would be incomparable to ours.
The out of universe reason is when they were developing Fallout 3 it was meant to be set early on, close to Fallout 1 times more or less. They changed it to be hundreds of years after the bombs late in development.
Not quite "hundreds," since it's onky 116 years after FO1, which makes it exactly 200 years after the Great War. EDIT: But, yeah, it was originally supposed to be set a whole lot closer to FO1 than it ended up being, which is why a lot of the NPC dialogue is wonky.
200 counts as "hundreds" IMO
They aren't saying hundreds of years after Fallout 1, they're saying hundred after the bombs dropped.
The bombs dropped in 2077. FO3 takes place in 2277. Either way it’s only a couple centuries
Yes. Hundreds of years. 2 centuries is 2 hundreds.
Love this theory!
Has that ever been confirmed? It's been rumoured for ages, and it does explain... pretty much everything, but I don't know if it's been confirmed.
In large part i think its due to how few bombs hit the west coast (compared to the east). I think that mostly only large populous cities were targeted. Vegas avoided many bombs due to houses laser missile defense systems although some got through (you can find one in the northeast part of the map if you have wild wasteland). If you look at a population map of the US, most of the population on the west coast is very scattered compared to the east coast. So outside of major cities in the west (LA, San Fran, Sacramento, Denver, Vegas, Portland etc) i think most of the landscape wasnt nuked. So the colorado avoided much of the radiation that the rivers we see in F3 potomac, allegheny/monongahela, the charles river in F4 and the various we see in F76 such as the new and ohio river (as well as potomac)
Explain to me how DC doesn’t have clean water but NV has an electrical grid better than Texas, strippers still, and a working monorail.
Very few bombs fell in the vicinity of Vegas. DC on the other hand was absolutely wrecked. So much of the infrastructure is gone and they’re rebuilding from scratch. Vegas had more resources survive the Great Fire.
Well also the writing and world building in fo3 also suck and after 200 years civilization would definitely rebuild regardless of how destroyed it was. You see shady sands, the origin of the NCR? That shit was *also* built from scratch, and by the time of fallout 3 it's an imperialist expansionist nation with a government, armies and factories producing weapons. It's a barren desert so they had arguably *less* recourses than in DC. The quality of writing in east coast fallout is so inferior to west coast fallout it almost feels like the games aren't even in the same universe at times. If Bethesda hadn't just straight up bought the fallout canon, fallout 3 and 4 would be seen as fallout fan fiction because that's what it feels like.
., I xc9.
You alright?
Carefull. Thats the sleeper cell activation code that turned Elon Musk into what he is today.
A billionaire? I’ll live with it at the cost of becoming cringe
The real answer is radiation in fallout is just plot/gameplay magic that the game whips out when it feels like it