No Mutants Allowed posts on Van Buren

This page summarizes posts made by Black Isle developers on the No Mutants Allowed message boards.

kumquatq3
Fort Abandon: a rundown NCR fort and a central location in the game. The railway has a crossroads here, and if the player so chooses, he can slowly upgrade the fort into a center of prosperity.
 * Locations summary

Jericho: Formerly the Jericho Desalination Plant of New Canaan, Jericho is all that is left of the Mormon city. The town's prosperity revolves around the fresh water the still-working plant produces. However, the plant is old and inefficient, and Jericho is a long way from being the economic powerhouse it wants to be.

Hoover Dam: The largest city in the game and the headquarters of the NCR government. The town is built along the top and sides of the dam. Unfortunately, Governor Dodge is a weak leader, and the ongoing war with the Brotherhood of Steel hasn't helped his popularity much. Still, he's determined to hold the NCR together after the destruction of Shady Sands by the Enclave.

Maxson Bunker: A small outpost of the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood has become a shadow of its former self. No longer the sole custodian of advanced technology in the wasteland, the Brotherhood is struggling to find a new identity. The current leadership favors a return to power by wresting all advanced tech from the hands of "lesser people" by any means necessary. This attitude hasn't won them any friends, and because many in the Brotherhood disagree with such brutal methods, the whole organization is on the verge of civil war.

Grand Canyon: Due to uranium demand shortly before The War, the U.S. government removed the GC's status as a national park and allowed private mining companies to exploit the GC's supply of uranium (yes, there really is uranium in the GC). The resulting mess was an environmental disaster. As a result, the Canyon has become one of the deadliest places in the wasteland, home to hideous mutant things seen nowhere else. Sane people avoid it; too bad The Prisoner will probably find himself in the deepest, darkest depths of the Canyon at some point...

Mesa Verde: A small cliff dwelling set high in the side of a mesa. The people there, called the Ciphers, seem like any other group of tribals. In reality, they're quite skilled in science. They hold onto their secret knowledge in preparation for the day they are once again worthy to use it. The schematics for many a forgotten device is painted all over the village walls, but the few travelers that visit the village are unaware of the significance, dismissing the scribblings as "tribal art".

Oroborus: Home to Hecate, a tribal madwoman who sees herself as a goddess and a prophet. The Daughters of Hecate are her prime servants, spreading Hecate's will to all the tribes. The Vipers, Raider exiles from the West, have become Hecate's fanatical army and crush anyone who challenges her. The other tribes fear Hecate's power, and rightly so.

The Nursery: The last hope of the wasteland, where seeds and another genetic information, preserved from the world before The War, have been stored. This hidden valley is a lush, verdant place. Harold the Ghoul has found his way here, but thanks to the tree in his head, has been marked as an "interesting specimen" and has been prevented from leaving by the Nursery's security bots.

The Twin Mothers: As tribal as tribals get, that's these guys. They do well for themselves, having skill in agriculture. They're the descendants of Vault 31, and their village is built on top of the Vault. The Vault itself has ceased working long ago, but it's still a holy place to the Twin Mothers. Hecate has a powerful influence here, but the tribe hasn't completely fallen under her sway.

Hangdog Village: More tribals, but these guys are all about dogs: pets, food, guards, etc. The Hangdogs are slavers and scavengers, and are often in league with Hecate. However, they're not all bad and they just might not try to enslave The Prisoner if he proves he's good enough to be one of them.

Boulder Dome: A research outpost, filled with all sorts of scientific equipment. A ZAX supercomputer is here, but it's been damaged and is unable to run at full power. Still, the few scientists here seem to make do, though they're somewhat tightlipped about what exactly they're working on.

Denver: A ruined city of dogs and skyscrapers. There is no real civilization here, just a series of salvager camps set up high in the skyscaper ruins, away from the endless pack of feral dogs which roam the streets below.

Burham Springs: A fiery hellhole, thanks to the ever-burning coal in the mines. Naturally, there's here. Heh.
 * something* The Prisoner needs which can only be found

The Reservation: A ghoul town, and naturally highly radioactive. The ghouls are sick of being the underdogs of the wasteland, and they have a new leader who's going to stick it to the humans good. Firing radioactive artillery shells via Nuclear Nellie, the ghouls' bigass gun, into every town ought to clear those pesky humans out. Of course, Nellie isn't quite working right and the ghouls haven't figured out a way to move Nellie around easily.

Bloomfield Airbase: An old Airforce base, littered with the rusting carcasses of numerous air vehicles. It's also got not one but TWO working shuttles. Anyone up for a trip into space?

B.O.M.B. 001: The Ballistic Orbital Missile Base and the U.S.'s far more destructive version of Sputnik. It's the endgame area, and won't be seen until the end of Act 3.

Quote: ''It was a Rottweiler which was exposed to "something" that made it a little bigger, a little tougher, and a little meaner than the average rotty-rot (I love Rottweilers, btw). You had to do a few things before the dog would befriend you, though. Also, we wanted to make a dog companion that would be a great fighting ally as well.''
 * NPCs

Apparently this NPC was referred to as the Devil Dog by the Hangdog people. IIRC, I think I heard that you could name him whatever if you got him.

Also, I think you could tame any old dog around that area (you needed a dog to effectively deal with the Hangdog people) and have him as an NPC. I can't be 100% sure on that tho.

To tell you the truth, I have no idea what you would have to do to get him to join you (normal dogs was a check on some of your traits mainly), but I know that once you have him he does all sorts of interesting stuff for you (especially within the Hangdog tribe, as the better your dog, the better your status).

One of the more interesting NPCs, imo:

The Hanged Man was intended to be the best combat CNPC in the game. Fists, knives, guns - he was master of them all. The player was supposed to be able to find all the CNPCs early on, but they didn't want The Hanged Man to be *too* good right away. THey were still working on how to limit him

The Hanged Man is wrapped from head to toe in bandages because he's pretty much burned all over. The fact that he's still quite mobile and dangerous is a testament to his badassness. When the PC finds him, he's hanging by the neck from a pole at Fort Abandon, a central Shady Sands-type area in FO3. He's pissed and very much alive, and will tag along with the PC if the PC cuts him down.

Unfortunately, The Hanged Man is also one of the most evil characters around. Rape, murder, robbery - he's done them all. The tribals know his reputation, and having him in the party will make dealing with them *extremely* difficult. Even the civilized areas are somewhat fearful of him because he's the man with a seemingly infinite amount of lives.

Little is known about The Hanged Man's history. He'll reveal that he's got a connection to Caesar's Legion, and is particularly ticked off at them.

Huggies
My original design for the Hangdogs did indeed have the quality of one's dog determining rank within the tribe. The leader of the tribe always had the best dog. To win the Hangdogs' respect, the player must undergo the Hangdog's ritual of manhood by traveling into the nearby foothills and either stealing a puppy from the feral pack's den, or taming an adult dog.
 * More on the Devil Dog and the Hangdogs

The Devil Dog also lives in those foothills, but the Hangdogs see him more as an evil spirit than an actual living dog. He's a loner, never hanging out with the other dogs (a very unnatural thing in Hangdog eyes), he survives fights with creatures that would kill all other dogs, and every Hangdog who has attempted to tame him has nothing but scars and missing body parts to show for his efforts. Showing up at the village with the Devil Dog at his side would have brought the player instant respect... and a great deal of fear. I believe "Walks With the Devil" was the proposed reputation title you could get with that tribe if you had the Devil Dog as a companion. Had you brought back a normal dog or a puppy, the Hangdogs would have greeted you as a brother. With the Devil Dog, you become more of a shaman, one they're very, very careful not to upset.

Sean Reynolds
More on the Devil Dog The Situationist wrote: ''What about this 'Dog Town' that Sean keeps referring to? Was that an independent location or a sub-location within the places mentioned here?''

Dog Town = Denver, just as "the Dome" = Boulder. I was trying not to spill all the beans at once, but kumquat shot that plan in the head. ;)

tre wrote: Extreme. ''Would this also grant the PC any special "traits" within the city? I guess that people would treat you with a high respect, but would it grant that they give you gifts, "mercs" or the like and so on?''

There were things that you could get from the Hangdogs for "owning" the Devil Dog. You could get training for your dog, or medical supplies, or use your increased influence to affect the outcome of certain quests, you could challenge the leader of the Hangdogs to a dogfight over leadership of the tribe (and the Devil Dog was just about the only dog that could beat his dog), and so on.

Of course, the Devil Dog wasn't exactly healthy, and that made him unstable and dangerous....

Other fun stuff, this time relating to Boulder: Cannibalizing holodisks to save ZAX, learning about the robobrains and sleepers and CODE, extracting CNPC brains to put in robobrain bodies, using CODE to condition said brains so they wouldn't attack you after the operation....