Forum:What makes a holodisk a holodisk?

I'd like to hear your thoughts on a couple of things I noticed when working on making a list of all FO3 holodisks. I guess the main question is: "What makes a holodisk a holodisk?" This may sound weird at first, but of course it's not the obvious cases I'm talking about.

I'm not sure how much you are into the technical details of FO3; hence a little explanation. Every note, holodisk and terminal entry has a corresponding "NOTE" object in the game files. Basically it stores the text and/or the location of the audio/video file that should be shown when looking at it. Like all items, a Pip-Boy icon and a world model can be assigned to it. Since all of the aforementioned source text types are NOTE objects, it's not as easy to tell them apart at first glance.

Now, the clear-cut case (one would think) for a holodisk is of course if it has the holodisk world model assigned to it. However, some of the NOTE objects with the holodisk world model are only available as terminal entries in the game - but if you were to spawn them via console, they'd appear as a holodisk. An example are the Citadel terminal entries about Liberty Prime. In normal gameplay, they are terminal entries. If you'd spawn them via console, they'd appear as a holodisk.

Another group of NOTE objects where the line is hazy is those which have no world model but the holodisk icon in the Pip-Boy. A few of these are clear cases (e.g. the Replicated Man holotapes) but a lot aren't - for example, most of the "note to self"-style Pip-Boy entries about passwords have the holodisk icon.

Now, are these two groups - holodisk world model but no holodisk in normal gameplay on the one hand and no world model but holodisk icon on the other hand - holodisks? :) -- Porter21 (talk) 18:32, October 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * A bit hard to say, but for Fallout 1 and 2 holodisks, we also call messages copied from computers that do not exist as inventory items "holodisks". Ausir(talk) 20:14, October 23, 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I've opted to go by "appearance" in the game. If it actually exists as as item in the game (i.e. you can get it from an NPC's inventory, it's lying around somewhere etc), I've put in the holodisk category, otherwise in the terminal entries one - seems to make sense to me. For FO1 and FO2, volume probably wouldn't justify separating terminal entries and holodisks. For FO3 it's a bit different - we have 100+ holodisks in FO3 (in terms of actual ingame items), for FO1 and FO2 combined we have about 40. -- Porter21 (talk) 12:02, October 26, 2009 (UTC)


 * Maybe the PC has a little USB type thing that he connect various electronic data devices to, and downloads it onto his holodisk, which is built into his pip-boy and has a lot of memory? --24.72.49.251 23:02, November 6, 2009 (UTC)


 * Why don't you just call only the world model "holodisk" (i.e. in the sentence "you can find the holodisk lying under the bed blabla"), and for the text message, associated with either this black-and-white thingy or with a terminal entry or a clipboard or a piece of paper, the general term "information" or "text message" or something like that could be used. Saves anyone from the often fruitless speculation how information is stored in the FO world. So you'd say "read the information by accessing the terminal / after picking up the holodisk". Artificially splitting up something in two categories that appears mixed together under "notes" for the player doesn't make sense, imho. And there is no need to use the term "holodisk" for more than the world model, because this holodisk vanishes by picking it up, i.e. it is not in the inventory, not droppable etc., just the information exists. --87.156.240.169 17:25, March 10, 2010 (UTC)

Well, while the difference between paper notes and holodisks is debatable there's definitely a difference between these two and terminal entries. Only a small fraction of terminal entries result in an entry being stored in the Pip-Boy, and unlike paper notes or holodisks terminal entries are not objects that can be picked up. Your point regarding holodisks vanishing is only partially correct; some of them do not vanish but are simply inventory objects like any other.

In general however, I'd agree that the whole division in paper notes and holodisks is a bit over-the-top and using a more generic term would be better; however, coming up with one is not that easy. "Text message" is incorrect; a large number of holodisks contain audio messages. "Information" is far too vague to use it as a category name. Using "notes" can inspire terminal entries being added to the wrong category, wrongfully giving people the impression that they're items to search for and pick up.

In any case, I'm open for suggestions and would suggest that whatever term we settle upon is also applied to the "holodisks" from older games. -- Porter21 (talk) 14:11, March 15, 2010 (UTC)