Chris Avellone’s correspondence with Tagaziel

It's a brilliant plan. I love reading material that expands on what I enjoy. Can't wait to read ;)

Regards,
Tagz

PS: The Iron Lines bits are live on NMA. By the way, what exactly is hexcrete and its purpose?

Sounds good. I'll try and get that to you the week after GDC, since that convention's already threatening to consume my life for the next two weeks. :)

Hexcrete: Intended as "revolutionary" construction method and material that didn't pan out to be revolutionary after repeated tests. The idea was modeled after the concrete plate structure seen in Washington D.C. in Fallout 3 - the hexcrete towers are more simple versions of mass-production efforts

Hello,

I'm sorry if I'm being a bother, but as I'm replaying Old World Blues and soaking up the lore, I'm stumbling across elements I never noticed before and which, well, are not entirely explained (or I'm not looking for explanations hard enough).

What triggered this e-mail was the terminal in Z-43 Lightwave Dynamics Research in Big MT, where the researcher mentions a mysterious entity referred to as simply N.E., which/who is/are supposed to sign off on Sinclair's request to militarize hologram technology. I can't really make sense of it, much like I couldn't make sense of the X-66 hexcrete archipelago, so I'm asking for help, if it's not going to be a problem.

Regards,
Tagaziel

PS: Hopefully pestering with QUESTIONS is not annoying?

N.E. is supposed to stand for "National Electric" a company that was helping to finance/develop the technology.

Chris

Hello,

upon reviewing forum messages and Twitter posts (I promise not to stalk you more than necessary, Mr Avellone) I've been surprised to read, that you do not consider the Fallout Bible canon any more.

I'm not sure about the reason, but I think declaring it non-canon is a bit harsh, considering that much of its contents are facts, either from design documents or developers that worked on the original titles, clarifying them. It's also very well written.

Or is it simply non-canon whenever it contradicts current lore? A clarification would be nice.

Regards,
Tagaziel

So here’s the thing – I don’t consider it canon, it’s true. It was a labor of love, I enjoyed doing it, but ultimately, Bethesda is the one in control of the lore and the license. They are the holders of it, so anything I wrote back then (even for the actual games) is capable of being retconned at will for the future.

I know this isn’t an ideal answer, but unfortunately, that’s where things stand.

So, bottom line: Bethesda and Obsidian do include the Bible in its sources, but do not consider themselves bound by anything contained therein? I don't recall V34 or V106 mentioned outside the Bible, before it made an appearance...

Gah, so complicated. Still, less of a cluster... erm, than the Command & Conquer series. Now that's pretty terrible.

At any rate, thank you for your reply. :)

Regards,
Tagz

PS: Oracle would like to know what is your favourite color.

Bottom line: Bethesda is able to write whatever they want, and they are not bound by the Bible. They are usually bound by stuff that has appeared in F3 and FNV, I believe.

Ultimately, we’re not the holders of the franchise, so it’s up to them. When we were at Interplay, that was different because we held the franchise then.

Hello,

I've got a question I'm not sure was ever asked. In the NMA developer profile (which tears me up every time I read it :)) you mention that in Vault City you "downplayed some pretty nasty sexuality that was too offensive even for me". Do you still recall what was so horrible about it?

Sorry for the random intrusion, but it just occurred to me.

Thanks for reading this and not sending arcane ninjas to my home!

Regards,
Tagaziel

The character Phyllis had some surprisingly low-brow and offensive dialogue associated with her 1st or 2nd draft that I removed when re-writing her. It was offensive because:

 

- It was the only gender-specific dialogue I found across 20+ dialogues in Vault City. The fact that she was one of the few female characters was also kind of odd.

- It involved solely sex, which made it doubly offensive.

- The language was a little disturbing in the player responses (bitch, slut), and it felt so out of keeping with the other dialogues, I removed it and changed her character and tried to flesh out the branching dialogue for multiple genders and approaches (and intelligences). Phyllis has one of my favorite 4 INT player responses in Fallout 2.

 

Anyway, hope this helps. I had no idea who did the first draft of it, it just bothered me.

It has occured to me that I did not thank you for your reply.

So, as thanks, I'll share a small bit I found today. As you may recall, there was a bit of a confusion as to when Dennis Allen's original expedition took place. The timeline gives the date as 2134, but I found a source, buried deep within Ol' Nose (Cabbot):

"Oh, well, in the Exodus, the Brotherhood split into two groups. The
group that broke away robbed the others of some of the weapons
an-and went southwest. About ten years ago, we sent out knights to
look for them, but all they found was ruins. No one knows what
happened."

http://www.falloutwiki.com/Dennis_Allen

Well, now we know that the expedition wasn't undertaken by 90 year old senile men :)

Regards,
Tagz

Hey, thanks for the info, Tagz, much appreciated! And no worries on thanking me for a reply, I imagine we both have to juggle a lot on a day-to-day basis. :)

Hello Mr Avellone,

I'm writing since I recalled you mentioned a small write-up about Elijah's anti-PIP-Boy rants. I'm wondering if it would be a good time to bug you for the PIP-Boy rants (or if it would be okay to pelt you with odd questions from time to time).

Forgive my directness, but I'm still unsure how to write these kinds of e-mails.

Kind regards,
Tagaziel^[1]

It is totally fine to pester me with questions. I still haven’t found those rants, unfortunately. I’ll keep looking, it may be a while – and feel free to ask me whatever you want, it’s no trouble or bother at all. It’s what I’m here for.☺

Thanks for replying, I was beginning to think I crossed you somehow. :)

I'll try to keep the questions short and to the point. Something I've been trying to crack for a while now is the Big MT naming pattern for the laboratories. X-Y-Z and numbers. I feel like there's something deeper there, maybe connecting the dots form a smiley face? Or something more? Or maybe I'm just reading into it a bit too deep?

Regards and thanks for your time,

Tagaziel

Hey, Tagaziel, beyond the fact “X” felt like it was mentioned in a lot of 1950s sci-fi movies, and “Y” always felt like a good letter in the context of “Y” would someone do this, and Z felt like an extension of “well, we have X and Y, why not Z?” there wasn’t much thought beyond maintaining the crazy science ambiance to the naming.

I do believe for the single (?) Z lab, it was implied that the “Z” meant it was a much older lab. To be honest, there isn’t much to be gained by trying to decipher a reason behind the Think Tank’s actions (or even Mobius), which is part of their shtick.

There was purpose in the numbering scheme if I recall, and there were some labs that we had to be careful of the naming because they ran way too long (Magnetohydrodynamics was one).

Chris

Hello Mr Avellone,

I finally got the courage to ask you two questions, one a little bit more complicated, the other, well, about the background lore.

The first one is: is Ulysses based on your original concept for Matthias Presper? While on the surface they are as different as fire and water, on a conceptual and gameplay level there is a fair bit of similarities. If I recall correctly, Presper was originally designed as a counterpart, a foil for the Prisoner, reacting to the player's choices and activities throughout the game and acting as a rival adventuring party.

From what I experienced and saw in the files, Ulysses is set up in exactly the same way, as the mirror of the Courier that fulfilled the same role in the East (and actually feels like a player character from another Fallout title appearing in New Vegas, after completing that game's plot, ruining New Canaan and aiding the Legion). The way in which he reacts to the player basing on their reputation (i.e. actions in the game) also feels similar to the original concept for Presper.

I understand that's a pretty long question, but it's something I was going over in my head.

The second is related to Vault City. I'm doing research for The Vault, trying to determine what exactly happened to the it. While the Bible suggests that independence and Lynette/Westin marriage (ohjesusthat'sahorriblementalimagerightthere) is the binding ending, New Vegas implies that it was annexed by the NCR, owing to the spread of augmentation technology (vide Followers) and in Cass' own remarks about Vault City pacifism, which stands in stark contrast to its belligerency in Fallout 2.

I assume defining the ending was a part of formulating Cass' background, which is why I'm asking: is Vault City independent, a part of NCR, or a big hole in the ground once the Chosen One was fed up with its bigotry?

Apologies for the length of this e-mail. I'll try to keep 'em shorter in the future.

Regards,
Tagaziel

1. No. Presper was a different beast with a different agenda. Ulysses was intended to react to the Rep mechanics in New Vegas as part of his core concept, yes, which felt appropriate from a design perspective.

2. I don’t know, but my non-canonical vote is that Vault City could not have remained independent from NCR (it had too much going against it). Again, not a canon answer.

Chris