Forum:What qualifies as an "unmarked location?"

I had thought that the baseline was somewhere a reasonable distance from a marked location with some loot and some enemies but in my current play-through, my fifth, in which I'm trying to do things "out of order" (reached the strip while on level 8), I passed through the place just north of the Wolfram Range where the Legion ambushes a caravan.

I've seen this several times, after the first when me helping to defend the caravan resulted in an almost immediate second ambush by the Legion and getting killed, I've watched from a distance. The caravan always won but this time they got killed and I was able to loot the dead and pick up a lot of useful stuff.

So is it a location? It has a scripted event, choices made effect a players game and there might be lots of loot. Bwilderbeast 20:20, January 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * Personally, to me a unmarked location is named place either in game or in the GECK (via cell names), that does not have a Pip-Boy map marker. The reason I say that they have to be named, is so that there is no debate about what it should be called. However I dont think that there is a policy (none that I have seen anyways) that ultimately defines what a unmarked location is. So in most cases it is down to a contributers best judge of what information is of interest to the readers, instead of what is of interest to only them. ☣Avatar☣ 20:51, January 24, 2011 (UTC)


 * Our original rule of thumb for FO3 was something like "there needs to be something notable in this location" (e.g. a unique item). It was more precise than that, but I'm old and can't remember :P Further down the line it more or less expanded to "unmarked locations mentioned in the official game guide". -- Porter21 (talk) 21:01, January 24, 2011 (UTC)
 * I'd say that this caravan ambush encounter is notable enough to have a page. Ausir(talk) 00:54, January 25, 2011 (UTC)
 * Just a FYI it shows in the GECK as VERT2NiptonCaravanAmbushPoint01 and VERT2NiptonCaravanAmbushPoint02, and yes there is a script attached to it with outlines certain conditions. ☣Avatar☣ 02:12, January 25, 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for all the responses. If as Ghost points out it is a named place, has scripts that effect play and quite a lot of loot, does the Nipton Caravan Ambush deserve a page? Bwilderbeast 16:53, January 25, 2011 (UTC)

Still no guideline?
I've found this on my search for how unmarked locations are handled here, and what qualifies a place as "unmarked loacation". The thread is kind of old, but why creating a new one…

So here are my questions:
 * On the Fallout 3 locations many unmarked ones are already listed, in italics. Is this the only overview? I didn't found something else, though one of the guidelines gives an example of a Category:Fallout 3 unmarked locations (red link).
 * Besides this overview I've come about at least two other unmarked locations, at least one of them not even described as such. (I will change that…) What about a second map, including all unmarked locs?
 * There are some basic criteria that could imply a name for an unmarked location: Something in the game guide (which I don't own), the GECK cell name, a named interior cell like a specific building … but some locations that aren't marked don't have such things. How to name those?
 * And the – for me – most important question: May unmarked locations be referenced, when listing locations of items for example? Rather "1 Duck 'n Cover halfway on the road from A to B" than "1 Duck 'n Cover in Town ruins"?


 * 1) I believe so - I also believe there to be another existing cat, but I will need to track that down later. Similar to our random encounters for the original games (B.FO3.), we still have a lot of cleaning up to do, as well as standardizing/wikifying.
 * 2) A map listing unmarked locations, both recognized by the game, and those that we identify ourselves for whatever aspect of reasoning is involved, would be an ambitious project. It might be worth getting a project started for it, to remind us in the future that it might be a worthy endeavor. But with FO4 content now our priority, and with so many other projects that have not been completed, yet...
 * 3) Whatever is most appropriate. If there ends up being a more appropriate name to use, then a simple re-name is all that is needed. Keep this one simple, I say.
 * 4) I am pretty sure that we are already doing that - skill magazines were an important aspect of the game that we focused on pretty hard. But, if there are inconsistencies or inaccuracies in where we are referencing to unmarked locations, then feel free to make changes as you see appropriate. Just remember that notability is restricted to the actual location of the article - list loot at a location a few miles off, for instance, and it will be irrelevant. GarouxBloodline 18:01, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
 * On the subject of known unmarked locations, I have added all the Fallout 4 unmarked location names from a guide on "Fallout 4 map" page. For the likes of Fallout 3 the guide is a poor source. Because it is hands down the most poorly reviewed tome I have run across. I am recommending that we use it as a secondary source for the GECK work. Basically what we've already been doing.
 * Categories; I believe that we should have a "marked" and "unmarked" locations category for everything after & including Fallout 3.
 * Referencing, sometimes an unmarked location is given a unique characteristic or description which does come in handy elsewhere down the line. For example, a sunken boat named "speedboat" would describe that world model.--Ant2242 (talk) 00:01, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
 * No, we shouldn't have a separate category for unmarked locations. The Fallout 3 locations category includes all locations in the game, with marked locations being additionally categorized in a separate category. If anyone wonders if a location is marked or unmarked, they can simply check the categories or the infobox. Tagaziel (talk) 06:56, 20 January 2016 (UTC)