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The article lists it as "a body of water" but Todd implies it is land when he says that "[the glowing sea] looks more like your classic fallout 3 wasteland." I don't think it's an actual sea of water.
I fixed it to just "a part of." I saw that too on a article. User:RocknRollFallout32 19:18 June 19 (UTC)
Sea or See? A see is an area, usually under an authority, such as the Papal See or an episcopal see. Water seems less likely. Do we have confirmed spelling?
"Sea" is probably used as a metaphor for "a widespread land" or something like that User:Orihulcan 22:23 October 8 (UTC)
Special Power Armor found[]
Seems there's a special set of Power Armor in the Glowing Sea as evidenced by this Steam screenshot that appeared in my Friend Activity feed: Glowing Sea Power Armor. 404UserNotFound (talk) 01:30, November 14, 2015 (UTC)
- And figured it out after doing some quick Google work. Raider Power Armor. Seems the Glowing Sea isn't the only place to get it but that's where my friend found it. 404UserNotFound (talk) 01:56, November 14, 2015 (UTC)
- Also, anyone would have been able to tell what type it is just by the screenshot. However, I've never seen Raider Power Armor ingame yet, so it looked new to me. Whoops! 404UserNotFound (talk) 01:57, November 14, 2015 (UTC)
- There's what I'm sure is an assured set of raider power armor, however I believe the other power armors are randomized - I believe I found X-01 and T-51 pieces in the two spots I found with them. Or maybe just X-01. Th!nk (talk) 20:55, November 16, 2015 (UTC)
There is another area you didn't list simply called 'cave' that contains a full suit of raider power armor. How raiders got their power armor stuck in the glowing sea despite never being there is another question altogether.
Sentinel Site[]
There actually is a reason for the Chinese to target the Sentinel Site - it was a nuclear launch facility, and part of nuclear strategy is to nuke the enemy's nuclear missile reserves before they can be fired in retaliation. While there's no direct evidence (as far as I know) that they targeted the site specifically (and it's possible they were targeting Boston or both locations) it's certainly plausible. - Chowder183
But the place is not a crater. It's in a good shape, just has a big amount of ghouls. The people inside survived as well. So, I doubt the Chinese tried to directly nuke the Senital, because then it would be leveled.---Sheofag
- Either way, the purpose of a nuclear strike is wholesale destruction of people and property, and taking out the people associated with the base is as good as knocking it out (provided you are lucky enough to catch them outside, or with the door open.)
There are also a number of other factors: The nuke may not have had the yield to take out the site due to bad intel on how strong the structure was. Or they could have been trying to rely on 'just enough' damage rather than absolute removal to put it out of action - after all, simply being unable to open the doors is enough to stop it, you don't have to vaporise the entire facility. Again (as I have hinted at elsewhere on this page) no-one has questioned the scientific validity of giant radscorpions, bloatflies shooting live maggots as projectiles or plasma weapons. It's a plot device, and therefore subject to a 'handwave' to further the game rather than stand up to rigorous scientific testing. Mctaff350 (talk) 06:51, December 18, 2015 (UTC)
Companions?[]
It's safe to take human companions there? Nick Valentine remarked he was safe because he is a synth, but is there a mechanic that adds radiation damage to human companions and renders them useless/dead? Mctaff350 (talk) 08:12, December 6, 2015 (UTC)
Glowing Sea in the wrong spot?[]
If you come out of the Vault and face the direction of the nuclear explosion, as visible here, you are facing south east. Now I haven't explored the entire map yet, but considering the healthy shape of the Castle for being near a devastating nuclear explosion, and the number of explorable buildings in the south east region, the Glowing Sea being the spot for the Boston nuke doesn't add up.--Trpc21 (talk) 20:47, December 6, 2015 (UTC)
- There would likely be more than one targeted device on a city, for "fail over" purposes, as guidance over such a long distance can potentially be tricky with primitive guidance systems. So the direction in which the (now assuming) first detonation originates isn't necessarily a problem as an air-burst or ground contact would leave little to no visible trace in the open water. The notable presence of explorable buildings could be put down to comparatively low-yield devices - i.e. in the single-figure-kiloton range - which also would back up why more than one would be required for any given area.
- But the root cause of the discrepancy is more than likely a large quantity of Narrativium present, which is the most reasonable explanation for an inconsistency in nuclear detonations such as this. Mctaff350 (talk) 14:22, December 8, 2015 (UTC)
- While that sounds good at first, it doesn't hold up. The yield on that explosion is definitely high, as shown by mushroom cloud height and thickness compared to this 19kt explosion. As is also stated on wikipedia, "Nuclear detonations produced high above the ground do not create mushroom clouds. The heads of the clouds themselves consist of highly radioactive particles, primarily the fission products, and are usually dispersed by the wind, though weather patterns (especially rain) can produce problematic nuclear fallout." For more evidence of the problem I have with this explosion, here are before and after pictures of ground zero for the Hiroshima bombing, which was approximately 16kt and detonated 1,900 feet above the surface. Nearly nothing is left. While I accept the Glowing Sea possible for an advanced weapon in alternate-universe 2077, the explosion witnessed by the Sole Survivor doesn't make sense but for player effect.
- I considered the possibility that the Glowing Sea we know is actually a distant edge, but the Crater of Atom is in the center of the Glowing Sea, and the effects are probably worse on the eastern side due to the jet stream. This explosion left a crater, which in real life, has been created by a nuclear test on or below the surface. The Hiroshima explosion did NOT create a crater. I suppose then that the Glowing Sea explosion would be in the correct spot, but this 2nd explosion is still a problem.
- The nukes as depicted are in the vein of close ground detonation - I never disputed that - all evidence in the game is fairly consistent with this scenario. But assuming there were several devices targeted that fell around the Commonwealth, a small kiloton yield could indeed create a 'tall' mushroom cloud depending on the perspective of the viewer.
- Given it roughly travels at the speed of sound, the blast wave depicted in the game would have meant the detonation took place around three kilometres away. At that distance, the flash burns would have been severe, although none are present on the characters. The blast wave itself would have caused compression injury and possibly even sucked the air out of the elevator (causing choking trauma and refilling the shaft with superheated air) as it passed overhead (depending on the surrounding terrain among other things), yet we don't see that either.
- Like I said... the whole thing is moot - Narritivium was present. It's all for show, handwave away the gritty science as it is "soft science fiction". After all, this is a world supposedly diverged from ours, but there are aliens, super mutants, oversized mutant creatures and synthetic humans, amongst many other bizarre and patently absurd things. Mctaff350 (talk) 17:40, December 8, 2015 (UTC)
- This may be a little off topic, but since this discussion has gotten into the more technical details of the validity of the Glowing Sea, I thought I'd add my own concern. I'm particularly dissatisfied with this as an explanation for why the Glowing Sea exists: "Originally the ground zero of a nuclear detonation during the Great War." At first, especially seeing the nuke go off at the beginning of the game, I took this for what it was. But even just a bit of thought makes it seem so absurd that it makes much of Fallout 4 seem non-canon. Why, exactly, did a single nuclear explosion create such a hostile and irradiated place? So far as I can tell, this is not explained anywhere and I've seen no other discussions on the topic. D.C. surely suffered the nuclear wrath of China, and possibly other countries, yet there was nowhere even remotely similar to the Glowing Sea there in Fallout 3. One atomic bomb should not have caused a place like this to exist. And if it did, there must be an additional reason for its existence out there. The only one I could think of that may make some semblance of logical sense would be that the bomb in the cutscene hit many other bombs that went off right after, but since the Sentinel Site is intact, this seems unlikely. Anyone have any thoughts or information on this?
- In answer to your question, the first obvious answer to try is the device was heavily impregnated with Narritivium. The second, initially flimsy reasoning is to say "A dirty bomb" while still being of the nuclear- or thermonuclear-type, for whatever reason. Remember, in Fallout 3 there were comparatively tiny craters everywhere, some quite well irradiated, and that would be consistent with very low yield devices with a close-to-ground-contact-fuze. Conversely, the one shown in Fallout 4 was a larger yield by comparison. This could have been a different mode of delivery (only one plane could make the trip, so instead of carpet nuking the place, lets just throw One Big Football at it!), or conversely they weren't as satisfied this particular different (larger) device would behave, so they lobbed it at a less valuable target. Another linked hypothesis could be a different use of materials in an attempt to create a primitive (or alternative) Enhanced Radiation Weapon - read: Neutron Bomb - or any other number of somewhat plausible scenarios. As I have mentioned before, though, it's a bit like people picking apart Star Wars inaccuracies (for an easy famous example, there are plenty of others), and then requiring complex hypotheses to explain away what is a glaring scientific head scratcher. So for the sake of keeping yourself sane, it's best to say "In this universe, nukes behave a little more like this, and radiation causes beneficial mutations, and ghouls are immune to radiation because they are, and cryogenics work because they do, and Vaults can produce food despite an abject lack of giant storage space or food factories because magic, and so on. It's for entertainment, and thus subject to the laws of physics being bent like a banana to generate an outcome for the recipient. Mctaff350 (talk) 07:12, December 18, 2015 (UTC)