Hey all.
INTRODUCTION:
I have a few ideas of different things I would like to see come from future Fallout games so I'm gonna keep this shorter by only talking about one of those ideas. Also I have only played the modern Fallout games as of now and have yet to finish Fallout 4 so I will be talking of the modern ones only here.
Fallout has more than once now done the story of escaping a vault to find a relative, and Fallout New Vegas being the only modern one that has done something different with it.
I want to see a new take on the vault conditions and what drives you to travel the waste land.
I would love to see something new instead of finding a relative, maybe this time make it a story of vengeance and mystery. You start the game in a fully functional Vault in a new part of North America, (As a Canadian I would love to see something based in Canada.) Such as in Fallout 3 you start off as a young Man or Women, and your getting ready for your first day on the job. Your job is to be the new rookie of one of the few scavenging squads/teams that your vault uses.
Like Fallout 3 being young and growing up is your tutorial, in this iteration your very first day on the job can be your tutorial. You and your team are tasked to go to two near by towns and trade for goods then return, and if along the way you see any animals your squad is order to hunt them for meat.
EXAMPLE OF BEGINNING:
TUTORIAL AND STORY:
So you would go with your team to the first city and meet a few people and are given a task to go to a shop and purchase a few things, next you have to go back to your team leader to move on to the next town.
Now a combat training segment starts. Your team comes across a Molerat on the way to the next town, and they task you to kill it, seeing as how your the rookie they want to help train you in fire arms. After you kill the Molerat a few more pop up and one attacks a team mate, whom is a fellow rookie, but he has been on the job for a month or so already. Now they would teach you about V.A.T.S. to make sure you can save your team mate while the others fight off the other Molerats. Now if you decide to be slow and let him die then you lose out on a companion and friend in the game and could change how the game in the future progresses. Now if you save him right away every one will be happy and you get a cool treat when you get back, maybe a nicer gun or a bobble head early, or a book. If you save him but the team mate gets injured you are still the hero but no reward and every one will be happy for you but not to such a high degree.
So you move onto the next town and something isn't right. There is something going on so the you and the leader of the team have to sneak somewhere to pick pocket a key that unlocks a door that will let out the guards that are trapped in a house with a few other hostages. The guards will then help your team take down the raiders, after you will proceed with the mission and do your trades. This would be a good section to teach two mechanics: Stealth and Stealing. If done wrong you will get caught and have to fight through raiders to get the key and free the guards, but if you complete it properly you will have a better understanding of stealth and the stealing mechanics.
On the way back the whole team could be having a cool banter or discussion. This would also be a good time to teach you some lore and background about the world or give you red herring about the world for later on being shocked to find the truth. This will also help give the player a connection to the members of the team for further down the line in the game.
You get back to the vault, the Overseer greets you and is happy, you have finished your first day on the job. You are also greeted by your family and a couple friends. Here you have a few things to do in the vault and get to explore it.
KICK STARTING THE ADVENTURE:
Flash forward to the future, your now a full fledged scavenger on a mid tier team working your way up to be on one of the elite teams that go on extended missions and are tasked with much more difficult tasks. You head out on your mission and visit one of the neighbouring towns, they ask you to go to the other town from before and retrieve something from the now destroyed town (It would be the second town you visited on your first day) to help them, which would then let you buy and trade for the mission. While at the other town your team will talk about how lively the place was and now how sad every one is about the loss, this would be a time to talk about the warring factions in the world. Once the mission is done you head back to the vault.
The vault is completely destroyed, large areas are caved in, everyone is dead, no one but your team is alive. You now have no home and no idea who destroyed your home, family, and life up to this point. Now the main story begins. You and your team are setting out to find out who did this and seek revenge.
Along the way depending on how you play depends on who in your team decides to stay true to the cause, who leaves, who betrays and dies or lives.
THE STORY CONCEPT:
Also along the way you find out who did this but they aren't people you can just walk up to and kill. It's a massive gang that control parts of the wasteland. You are breaking these areas free from this gangs control and bringing freedom back to the wasteland.
Through exploring the world, saving places, and attacking the enemy, you start to learn why they are trying to control the wasteland in the area. They are trying to create a new government, defend the area from enemies, whether they may be kinda evil or straight up evil of a gang or maybe their hear is in the right place, it's up to you as a player to decide how you see them and how to act accordingly.
While learning this info you also learn that the elite squad you loved so fondly was actually very evil, to point of doing grotesque and vile acts to all people and being known to have attacked the week for what they need or even for fun. You learn of their evils and the justification that this gang had in destroying your vault. It wasn't just the squads decision but also the overseer and the high ranking officials of the vault as to why this group was so evil, although the squad does take things to far sometimes, with no repercussion. You learn that your very vault is actually quite evil, but the evils are hidden from the masses and only the high ranking people know of it all and the secrets.
Now you as the player have to decide who you wanna side with and how to tell your team. Will you side with the new government and try to make a just and righteous land or do you push aside all the evil and get revenge for your family, friends, the ones you loved, and those effected by this gang. With other Fallout games there will also be other factions you can join, such as the Brotherhood of Steel, and maybe some new ones.
CONCLUSION:
The whole game is based on learning about how this gang and your vault effected the world, who is the lesser of two evils, where you heart lays and what you find is your personal justice. How you achieve it is up to you, but in the end the truth hurts and you will have to live with it and do what you deem is right. Reform the wasteland, set the wasteland free, or burn the wasteland to the ground, seek revenge, or run away from it all.
In the end I think it would be quite interesting and there is a lot that can happen to make an emotionally impactful story.
Thanks for reading and see you all in the next post! :)