Fallout Bible 5 Fallout Bible 5 is the fifth installment of the " Fallout Bible " , a collection of documents containing background material for the first " Fallout " games compiled and written by Chris Avellone . This installment was released on March 11 , 2002 . All notes in italics come from " Fallout Wiki " editors , not from Chris Avellone himself . Intro : Black Isle Studios message boards . Welcome to the fifth Fallout Bible update - if you missed any of the others , check the Black Isle main page and the " More News " section ( and scroll down ) . The first three updates have been collected into " Update Zero , " and the fourth update stands on its own . For those of you who haven ' t seen these before , the Fallout Bible is just a collection of all the background material and hi - jinks from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 compiled into one document so the fans can take a look at it . Some of it ' s a little rough , so if you see anything wrong or if you think of anything you ' d like to see , drop me a line at Cavellone @ blackisle . com " Note : This is no longer Chris ' s email address " and I ' ll see what I can do . I can ' t promise I ' ll answer your emails immediately , but I will get around to it , usually when the weekend hits . Because I am lazy , small , quick questions have a much faster turn around time . In any event , these updates will now be appearing hopefully twice a month ( on every other Monday ) on the Black Isle Studios website , but you can usually find it not long after at any of the Fallout fan sites across the web . Thanks for supporting Fallout , Chris Avellone @ Black Isle Fast forward . That ' s it . Onto the update : Questions . Here ' s one from Aaron Johnson : 1 . What does the Easter egg you find in New Reno do ? Nothing , it ' s just lame game developer humor - it was just there so we could say for sure there was an easter egg in the game . I like the icon for it , though . Here are two questions from yPArAH from the last Fallout chat at Vault 13 : 2 . < Red1 > < nowiki > [ yPArAH ] < / nowiki > Goris says he is relatively new to Vault 13 when the Chosen one speaks to him ( rolled in about two months ago ) . This , I suppose , means he is not from Grutnar ' s pack . Is so , why is he intelligent , like other Enclave - modified deathclaw s ? According to John Deiley ( designer of Goris ; worked on design for Vault 13 , 15 , NCR , and helped with numerous maps ) : 3 . < Gadro > < nowiki > [ yPArAH ] < / nowiki > BTW , how did Goris survive the Franky ' s raid on the vault ? John Deiley has an answer for you : Here ' s a two - in - one from Alex Sinov ( one of these questions was also asked by < nowiki > [ LasTofThE ] < / nowiki > at the last chat ) : 4 . Whi Does Goris Have A different Skin Color ? and Goris ' pets were dipped in FEV ? According to John Deiley ( designer of Vault 13 and Goris ) , Goris ' skin color was most likely a result of him mutating differently ( FEV mutates even the same critters with variations ) , and according to Jason Suinn ( designer of the Military Base in " Fallout " 2 ) Melchior ' s pets were extra tough do to their exposure to the raw FEV in the military base - Melchior dipped them in FEV as part of his " magic . " In addition , it was gauged by that time in the game that the players would be at a pretty high level , so they needed to be extra tough in order to pose a challenge . Melchior captured many of these creatures from raids on the surrounding wastes . They were not present when he overthrew the Enclave forces stationed at the base . Here are some questions and some points from Pawel Dembowski : 5 . In F1 the Lieutenant said that the FEV raises intelligence . There are , however , very many dumb mutants . What can you say about it ? And what do you think of my theory , which i ' ve been using in my Fallout PnP campaign ? Sorry , Pawel , for two things : I wasn ' t able to personally respond to your email because I kept getting bounced , and two , I wasn ' t able to comment on your FEV theory ( as a reminder , I can ' t read fan - created material , so just send questions , comments , or facts if you can ) . As for the FEV enhancing intelligence , the original Pre - War FEV at West Tek did , and more consistently than the Fallout - era virus . The current Fallout - era FEV does enhance intelligence - in some people . Just not many . The Lieutenant was one of the lucky ones who didn ' t become a knuckle - dragging , butt - scratching moron after being dipped ( and it may not have raised his intelligence , he may have been that smart before his dipping , but no records of his past exist to verify this ) . The FEV that was released out in the wasteland was mutated by radiation , so its effects changed . As for the FEV at Mariposa , the Lieutenant says the super mutant s are smarter than humans ( " We are highly intelligent and immune to disease " ) , which is only half - right , and he also says that the virus can also interfere with a person ' s memory , causing them to forget things . Obviously , the Lieutenant keeps forgetting that most of his super mutant forces can barely form complete sentences . Basically , the FEV in the vats only has a small chance of raising a being ' s intelligence ( or even keeping it intact ) . The Master was one of the lucky ones . More often than not , it causes brain damage . It ' s also possible that the crude dipping procedure in Mariposa also caused imperfect mutations as well , reducing the chance of heightened intelligence . But to answer your question : the FEV at West Tek before the war caused increased intelligence in its subjects , but the FEV at Mariposa after the war rarely enhanced the intelligence of humans who were dipped . The reason for this is unknown . Chris Taylor says : Here ' s a question from Andrew Quigley : 6 . About how many working or servicable cars are there at the time of FO2 ? Obviously there must be more then one , since the guy in new reno has a garage fully staffed , and most likely has a large supply of parts ( im assuming that was what the warehouse building next to the garage was filled up with , you couldnt pick up anything off of them ) Probably not too many , but I don ' t know the exact number . The real problem isn ' t fuel , it ' s mostly tires and other degradable parts that have gone to the dogs in the past 100 years . For every two hundred or so people , there might be one working vehicle , and even " the local clunker " wouldn ' t be up to factory specs . NCR is rumored to have a mechanized vehicle division outside of its farming vehicles , but the number of vehicles in the division is unknown . The next question is from Darren Rowe : 7 . Just a question about the Luietant from Fallout 1 , was he a Brotherhood soldier that got dipped ? Or was he just a mutant that got lucky and scored himself some nice armor ( that looks a lot like PA ) - Stainless He ' s a human that got lucky when he was dipped and managed to keep his intelligence ( or possibly , got greater intelligence ) . As for armor and weapons , yeah , he lucked out , especially with that gatling laser . : ) The next question is from DoPr : 8 . Hi , In the last " Fallout Bible " update there was a question about Richard Grey and why he was exiled from Vault City . I remember that there was another person exiled from the VC - Leonard Boyarski . He also was exiled for a murder but I ' m curious how did he die ? I ' ve found his grave on the Golgotha and it ' s quite surprising . ps . If there are any mistakes , sorry for my English . : - ) Boyarsky was an in - joke to Leonard Boyarsky who originally worked on F1 and parts of F2 ( one of the five billion developer references in Fallout 1 and 2 ) . I think the name was originally Jason Anderson in the text , but I don ' t remember . Boyarsky was exiled for murder and unauthorized research ( the research allegations revolved around some tampering with the pregnancy cycles in the Auto - Doc that apparently put all of Vault 8 in danger , but the details were deleted from the Vault 8 computer ) . His crime occurred many years after Grey ' s alleged crime , but Boyarsky only got as far as Reno with a traveling caravan before he was robbed and killed by Reno toughs who saw him as an easy mark ( which pretty much is true for everyone traveling from Vault City ) . His reasons for traveling south were unknown , but it is rumored his original destination was east of Reno - even though explorers report there is nothing out there except desert and deathclaw s . This next one is from John Olivas : 9 . Hey what gives ? ! ? You sent me a letter 3 updates ago saying my questions would be in the next edition of the bible . I asked about EC squadren and Renewing . Then I asked about what was up with something . . . It was a quest that couldn ' t be solved . . . I don ' t remember but it had something to do with not finding a peaceful solution . Oh yeah Melchior the magnificent . Then nothing . I ' ve been patient but it ' s another update now . I know you ' re busy but I ' m getting the idea I ' m being ignored just because I ' m not some mosquito asshole who won ' t leave you alone for five minutes , never logs off the forums and expects you to explain fusion power . Fusion power ! You want an explanation : It ' s a game and it ' s tons o ' fun ! You explain it we ' ll give you a nobel prize ! I ' m asking stuff you MIGHT ACTUALLY know the answers to and I was told I ' d get them . I can ' t help but feel it ' s some kind of strange eliteist thing where only big members of the fallout community get any time . I used to be part of the fallout community and as luck would have it I was replaying Fallout2 when you started writing up the bible so I was buzzed . I still visit good ol ' duck and cover all the time and I even have a couple of the wasteland news stories at the San andreas Vault to my credit . ( Check it out I like em and i still get mail telling me they ' re the funniest thing people ever read . thought they were edited quite a bit for length . ) But I ' m just a little guy in the end . How about showing some love to the fan who ' s devoted but doesn ' t tear off his Blackisle shirt , pour a beer on his head and describe himself as " FRIGG ' N HAAAAAARDCORE ! ! ! ! WOOOO ! ! ! WOOO ! " ? Thankyou for your time and I ' d like to add nothing was meant in uh . . . bad humor though after re - reading it I think some of it could be construed that way ( unless that would get me an answer ) . Just adding this to be safe because I don ' t like to use incessent smilies . - John Olivas Just a reminder to anyone who sends me an email : I ' m human , and I forget stuff . Otherwise I would rule the universe right now . To answer your Melchior question , I can ' t find any documentation for any planned quest to reunite Melchior with his son , and after talking to Jason Suinn ( designer of the area ) , there was never a quest in place for it . His son was just included in Redding to foreshadow Melchior ' s presence and to clue the player in that Melchior was a kidnapped miner from Redding . As for the super mutant s in the Mariposa base , it was just intended as a combat location , so the dialogue was never planned , at least as far as I can see in the documents . And here ' s the follow - up to the question above : 9b . Hey thanks for answering . You probobly can ' t find the other questions because I was at my bro ' s when i sent em . I asked about what happened to some of the fallout 2 npcs after the game . We know myron gets stabbed by a jet addict ironically in the den . And Marcus goes off to go do some heroics of his own . But what about cassidy , sulik and the EC squadren to name a few . Cassidy and Sulik : Can ' t say , no documentation exists . To be honest , I ' ll probably leave their fates open , since I don ' t want to pigeonhole two of the most favorite NPC allies from Fallout 2 . I kind of hope that Cassidy eventually got his heart meds , though . At last word , Sulik returned to the primitive tribe for a few moons ( months ) after breaking paths with the Chosen One , then headed east in search of his sister . Cassidy went on to search for Texas , breaking south through NCR and past Dayglow . The punks on the tanker also survived , and they had a great view of the Poseidon oil rig exploding . They eventually into an uneasy trading relationship with the Shi after the destruction of the Hubologists , and the two groups went on to make San Francisco a major fishing and trading center . And here ' s the follow - up to the follow - up above : 9c . The other question was about renewing . I had always killed the rat God before I got to necropolis . Now I know ( as of about 3 days ago actually ) that renewing was the term the ghoul s used for becoming truly human again . ( I had just asked what it was before and what the heck the ghouls meant . ) Any further info on renewing would be much apreciated . ( though I don ' t expect you to explain how to actually do it or anything it remained pretty vauge in fallout2 and I just couldn ' t find a way to get it to happen . Everytime I tried to optimise the plant Vault city would wipe out the ghouls . Was it actually doable or just a clever ruse from the brain to take over the world ? ( he never did in my games and i didn ' t have to do anything to stop him , like in the cartoon his plans fall apart on their own I suppose ) Thanks for your time once again . It was not possible for the ghouls to " renew " in Fallout 2 - it was part of the Brain ' s plans to get them human again ( under his control ) . It is possible to save Gecko and VC - one of the walkthroughs on the Fallout fan sites should have info on it . And here ' s what the Brain specifically has to say about Renewal : And : Also , according to designer Matt Norton , " renew " was also a reference to the movie ( and book ) ' . ' A three - part question from Ed : 10 . Some anal - rententive bits about the Bible . You don ' t have to answer this email at all - just stick the answers in the Bible , if you think they ' re worth answering . If you already have the answers , and they ' re in the pipeline for a future update , feel free to tell me to stuff it . a . Anything in the design docs on when that tree began growing out of Harold ' s head ? I ask this because the timeline in the latest bible update says that Harold shook his head a lot when he settled in Gecko ( 2238 ) . Nothing in the design docs - Harold first started noticing it when he touched the southern boundary of the Fallout 2 world map on his way north ( after reconciling the skag s and the Hubbers at the end of F1 ) , and it ' s been growing slowly ever since . Its roots are going to start burrowing through his empty eye socket soon . b . A quote from Summer , 2066 : " Nearly thirteen years later , few sections of the United States were supplied with fusion power . " Since the Great War broke out in October , 2077 , I guess this would be technically true , as the the Poseidon platform ( and maybe the vault s ) would still be using fusion power in 2078 . Assuming , of course , that ' s what the statement is meant to say . My error . This will be fixed . I meant to say " Nearly eleven years later . " Here ' s the correction : c . In the timeline , Mariposa was supposedly constructed on Jaunary 7 , 2077 , but FEV research has been going on there since May 9 , 2075 . Did I misread this ? Again , my error . The new timeline fixes are : A question from Dan Vondrak : 11 . Dan Vondrak : So if Richard Grey was from Vault 8 and was old enough to be exiled for murder , wouldn ' t he have know about what Vault s were , and maybe even where other Vaults were located . But the bible says the Master finds out about the Vaults from the Boneyard Vault . Almost making it sound like he never knew about these Vaults before . Unless the mutation into the master made him forget , that makes sense I guess . . ? Or am I missing something obvious . Nope , he knew other Vaults existed - he just didn ' t know where , and he didn ' t realize that the prime normals within these vaults would be so FEV - friendly until after a lot of experimentation . The only " discovery " the Master had was the realization that if he could find sealed vaults , then the specimens within would not be as contaminated as the ones he ' s tried to experiment on since . He knew about the Vaults , but he didn ' t realize at first the connection between radioactivity , the FEV mutations , and the potential of the prime normals Vaults have . Anyway , here ' s the revised timeline entry to avoid confusion : One from Radmutie : 12 . BTW about the Fallout bible : In the timetable ( under year 2090 ) Harold is mentioned as " now Human " . Are you sure that it should not be : " Harold ( at that point human ) " or " Harold ( now adult ) " ( in reference to the Vault experiments ) . Sorry if I have misunderstood it . Best Regards and best of luck - Radmutie Got it - here ' s the revised timeline entry to avoid confusion : One from Sean McGrorey : 13 . There ' s a bounty hunter to the west of the Followers of the Apocolypse compound with a suspiciously familiary name . What ' s his story in the Fallout universe ? Where did he come from ? It ' s just a joke from Jess Heinig , one of the programmers . It ' s one of the five billion developer in - jokes in Fallout 1 and 2 . The fellow < nowiki > [ Avellone ] < / nowiki > has no past , and no future . Two from Tatu Ahponen : 14 . One thing - what ' s happened to Junktown ? Was it just too little to be it ' s own state ? Or maybe it has managed to survive as an independent enclave inside NCR , a hive of scum and villainy , so to speak . And what kind of folks would live in Glow ? After all , that place must still , well , glow , at least somewhat . Ghoul s ? Junktown became part of NCR as part of the state of Shady , and it was one of the first provisional states , considering it was one of the first ( and most trustworthy ) of the Shady Sands trading partners during its early formation . Its alliance with Shady Sands did cause some alarm from the caravans in the Hub , but it didn ' t hurt the Hub communities any . . . and the Hub eventually became part of NCR as well . As for the Glow ( or the state of Dayglow ) , most of the state is actually north and west of the glow , but they are still able to see the Glow from their borders . A number of ghouls are rumored to live there now , as part of the Great Migration from Necropolis - once the ghouls learned of West Tek , they were eager to see if they could scavenge technology from the abandoned center . Some ghouls formed partnerships with scavenging companies from New Adytum and the Hub and have built quite a profitable corporation from their salvage efforts . At least one super mutant , a refugee from the Cathedral , was also rumored to be working with the ghouls and humans in Dayglow . 15 . Another thing . While FO1 ending animation suggests Hub is destroyed , it still seems to exist . Has it been rebuilt , or did it survive , no matter what was said in FO1 ending ? In latter case , is there a chance Followers of Apocalypse also survive ? The Hub survived F1 , and last word was the Followers of the Apocalypse also survived , using their knowledge to help the Blades of New Adytum . Here ' s one from Skjalg Aka . NeXor : 16 . Have you got anny idea who made the " Moo , MOOO , I say " Special Encounter ? ? If you meet him , tell me i think its the best thing in Fallout ! ! - Skjalg Aka . NeXor It was an old joke from a that Tim Cain used to play in - he apparently made a habit of teleporting cows into his rival ' s private chambers ; the cows would say things , like " Moo , I say . " Chris Taylor heard the story , and he thought it was funny enough to put in Fallout , so there it is . And here ' s it directly from the two of them : Here ' s one from Uber Dog : 17 . Anyway in the fallout bible chat you asked if we were wondering about spefic animals and extincatioon , and I know this might sound odd , but I was basing it on a storyline for a fot campaign set in africa I was making , So I was wondering what is the status in the fallout world of hippo ' s , elphants and penguins ? Penguins are dead , elephants and hippos are unknown , and there ' s no documentation on whether they are alive and kicking or not . Feel free to play around with FEV and species survival to suit the story . Mutated hippos would be interesting . Mutated penguins probably wouldn ' t be . BTW , I suppose I shouldn ' t be hyping other games , but if you ' re interested in checking out some cool things you can do with hippos check out VR1 ' s " Lost Continents " : < img src = " http : / / lostcontinents . vr1 . com / images / newsletter / hippo _ big . jpg " alt = " " > For anyone doing fan fiction or campaign stuff for Fallout , my recommendation would always be to do whatever makes the story or campaign better - strict adherence to the Fallout genre might kill some good ideas for a story or ( in role - playing games ) lessen a cool playing experience for your players . One from Anti - Hero from the Fallout Forums on BIS : http : / / feedback . blackisle . com / forums / 18 . I know there are slaver s in Fallout 2 , but where are the slave s ? Sure we see them in the pens being kept captive by the slavers , but you don ' t see allot of them in houses or around cities . I don ' t think allot of people can afford slaves . And the slavers certainly seems rather large of a group , how do they make all that money and get all those recruits by selling slaves in the high - peak of poverty ? And even if people can afford slaves , what would they do with them ? Make them farm ? I certainly think not because there isn ' t allot of farming going on with the radiated and dead soil the Fallout world sports . Or what about growing drug s ? If the drugs of Fallout wore grown ( which they aren ' t ) then it would tie in with the Fallout problem , but since they are made chemically in gang - owned labs , the slaves aren ' t needed for drugs either . You can pick up that Vault City has slaves , but why would anyone buy slaves just to do the chores around those small houses of theirs ? What about the mines in Redding ? No , I think not . The miners in Redding are paid from what I can gather ( talk to the slut in the bar , and by picking the right dialog options she sais her miner boyfriend is not getting payed enough or something like that ) . There are allot of sluts in Fallout , but I find it hard to believe that they are slaves since the pimps would have a hard time keeping track of them ( unless they confined them to their rooms in the whore houses ) . So , what the hell do the slaves in Fallout do ? There are slaves in F2 , you just don ' t see them too much except in Reno , random encounter s , and in sections of the Den , VC , and ( outside of ) NCR . The markets for slaves include Vault City ( who can easily afford slaves ) , caravan s ( who have enough cash to buy some porters to help carry stuff . . . plus you can sell the slaves at the end of a caravan drive ) , various farmers ( who can sometimes afford one or two slaves ) , and Reno ( those crime families make a killing ) , and as for prostitute slaves , there ' s usually one pimp for every 5 - 10 prostitutes , which isn ' t far from the real world model , I believe . BTW , sorry about this , but I don ' t post in the forums too much ; it ' s hard to find the time . I do try to check out the Fallout forums when I can . Five or six questions from Jonathon Forbes in Dublin : 19 . I just thought I would drop a line about this hole Fallout Bible thing . . . I have followed the Fallout saga since the first demo came out on a Disc on a PC mag and have loved it since . . . you probably already know about all the clans and fan sites knocking about on the net and I ' m sure that the news of yet more Fallout related material is on the horizon . . . Right then enough of the remenising crap time to get down to business . . . Here are a few questions that I have gathered up that you might be able to answer in the Bible and could lead to other things . . . 19a . The people that were outside the vault s when the bombs droped . . . how did they survive the bombs ? ? < br > 19b . How did the brotherhood initaly start off as in persons , places ? ? < br > 19c . What happened to the rest of the world . . . Europe , China , Russia , etc . . . ? ? < br > 19d . Were did the brotherhood get there resources to construct there main base . . . who was the brains behind the operation . . . ? ? < br > 19e . Who started some of the settlements such as the Hub , Reno City , etc . . . ? ? < br > 19f . What happened to the rest of the military personel . . ? ? < br > 19g . What happened inside the vault when they had found out the overseer had been killed by our hero . . ? ? a . Some areas of the world were not hit by nukes , and even though many cities promptly went to hell out of starvation and rioting ( New Reno ) , there were still plenty of cubbyholes and old shelters for people to eke out an existence . Survivalists and some isolated military units in Power Armor ( and other equipment ) also were able to hole up and survive the Nuclear Winter that followed . b . The Brotherhood started off under the leadership of Captain Roger Maxson , when he chose to break off from the US military and lead the remaining soldiers and families away from Mariposa and to the Lost Hills military bunker back in 2077 . c . This is a long answer , and I don ' t have it all together yet . : ) Maybe in a future update , but not any time soon . I will say that there were some U . S . military units stranded in China when the big one happened . d . Actually , most of the resources were already there . Maxson directed the rebuilding efforts , and what supplies they didn ' t have , they either scavenged from nearby " dead communities " or from trading with the Hub . e . Founders : Kind of complicated , but I ' ll see what I can do in a future update . For right now , I can tell you that the Hub was founded by a fellow named Angus , beyond that - I ' ll see what I can dig up . f . Military personnel : Whichever ones didn ' t line up with the Enclave either died out or are camped out in the wastes somewhere in their own bunkers . With their Power Armor . And heavy weapons . And their own dark secret plans . g . In official Fallout canon , the Overseer wasn ' t shot to death . In an alternate future universe where he was , I imagine the people would have gossiped about the horrible brutality of the Vault Dweller and then they would have elected a less - useless Overseer to fill the now - empty position . One from Nick Steffel : 20 . Was there ever a quest behind the grave - unearthings in Redding , or was it just ( perhaps ) a side - effect of the rats and Wanamingo s traipsing around underground ? It was just a hint of what the Wannamingoes were up , too - no big mystery , unfortunately . Two questions from David HAHA / Sand Hammer : 21 . What happened to the BOS ? In Fallout 2 they ' ve all but disappeared . You only encounter small " spy " outposts each guarded by a single man in tesla armor and all but one of these outposts are nothing more than a room with a desk in the center . So what happened ? They seemed too powerful in Fallout 1 to have fallen apart . Did they not attempt to advance their technology or expand ? Why did they do nothing more than watch the Enclave ? A cold war type thing between the two would have been . . . interesting . Nothing happened to the Brotherhood of Steel - the outposts / bunkers in F2 were just intended as listening posts . The Lost Hills bunker down south ( Fallout 1 ) is their main base of operations ; they just haven ' t expanded as far north as F2 , or at least brought as much of their weapons and armor . The metal armored fellows you encounter in the bunkers are mostly scouts and lesser paladin s assigned to watch the region . As for watching the Enclave , well , the Brotherhood ' s road has always been one of caution and gathering proper intelligence before taking action - sometimes too much so , as in Fallout 1 . So why didn ' t they attack the Enclave ? Well , the Brotherhood couldn ' t have survived an attack by the Master ' s army ( as hinted in Fallout 1 - although they would have caused a lot of casualties to the Unity ) - now imagine an army that ' s smarter , composed of hundreds of soldiers armed with advanced versions of Power Armor and guns that rival the Brotherhood of Steel , and I don ' t blame them for watching and looking for a vulnerability in this new foe . Anyway , they haven ' t fallen apart , and by the end of F2 , the BOS was alive and active in the southern regions . 22 . Ah yes there is ONE more thing actually . . . those darn geckos . Where did they come from ? They were non - existent in Fallout 1 while in fallout 2 they seemed to be all over the place and as Harold would put it : " You couldn ' t fart without hitting one . " They stemmed from an unknown species of lizard indigenous to the Oregon - California boundary that sucked up enough FEV to grow bigger , stronger , and faster - and they ' re definitely not sterile . While it took them a few generations to get all their new genetics straightened out , they started breeding slightly less than FEV - influenced rats . No one knows what lizard stock they originated from , or how the fire geckoes sprang into being . One from Stefan S Babicz : 23 . i was curious about the master . i read that the master " absorbed " people in to him , and that is what accounts for the different voices he has . but when he says a certain line ( the line where he debates who is best suited for living in the wasteland ) , he ends with a computer generated voice saying " mutants . " i was curious how the master was able to make the voice ( ie . wheather he was able to " absorb " and incorporate computers like a cyborg being or if a computer just said it instead of him ) . i ' m not going to lose sleep over this one , but hey , this IS the fallout bible , right ? - fatt Well , from what I can gather from the Grey ' s / Master ' s audio diary , he gained the ability to neurolink into the Cathedral computers , so the computer " voice " is just one of the people he absorbed channeling his voice through the computer . I suppose I could attempt some pseudo - science explanation for it , but it makes me confused just thinking about it . One of the 5 million questions from Deadlus : 24 . I found in master . dat picture , COLUSA , it was one more special encounter like EPA , Primitive Tribe and Abbe wchich BIS didn ' t have time to add it to the game ? Colusa was the old name for " Navarro , " so it wasn ' t another location , just a pre - existing location that got a name and location change . According to one of the lead designers , Matt Norton : That ' s what I recall , too , and considering how much dead space there was along the middle of the coast without the Primitive Tribe , that seems to support it . The real Colusa is much farther east and a little south of Navarro . One from Peter Jackson ( not the director of " Lord of the Rings " , to my knowledge ) . Among his other metaphor - laced comments , his end question is : 25 . and why did you guys f * * * up Fallout 2 with real locations ? ? ? fallout 1 didn ' t need any of those . it was cool to go to the Boneyard and find it was LA filled with dead bodies . getting to F2 , it ruined it to see all the places in California already there - post - nuke people would have named them differently anyway . I don ' t know why real world names were used in Fallout 2 for some of the locations . To the best of my knowledge ( I wasn ' t at any of these meetings ) , Tim Cain , Leonard Boyarsky , Jason Anderson , Matt Norton , and Jason Suinn all established the locations at the beginning of the Fallout 2 development cycle , and many of those locations ( with the exception of Colusa / Navarro ) remained true to those choices all the way to the end . Proverbius has an alternate answer for why super - mutants wear straps on their faces ( a question answered from last time ) : 26 . AS for an alternate answers to why mutants have straps on their faces . . . < br > http : / / www . vault13 . net / articles . php ? id = 17 < br > Chris Taylor says that the mutants have those straps to keep their faces on . < br > Saint _ Proverbius : Why did some supermutants have straps on their faces ? < br > Chris Taylor : To keep their face on , duh . And someone from the Vault 13 chat < nowiki > [ sorry , can ' t find the email ] < / nowiki > has some issues with ghoulishness : 27 . I disagree with making Harold not a ghoul . During Fallout 1 the name " ghoul " was not yet as widely used as in F2 . Harold could have disagreed with calling his mutant kind with such a name ( which is not very nice ) . When you ask him about the ghouls he says : I think it doesn ' t necessarily mean that he ' s not a ghoul . It just means that he doesn ' t want to be called a ' ghoul ' . He says , that the ghouls are mutants , just like him , and it doesn ' t matter how they call themselves . I think the name ' ghouls ' was either created for them by the Necropolis ghouls themselves , or by people who considered them monsters . As he looks like a ghoul , i think he would be considered one by both . Ghouls are not like supermutants , they are not all the same . It ' s only a name for people twisted by radiation or FEV ( or both ) . There may be ghouls created only by radiation , and ghouls created only by FEV . I also think , though Harold was mutated in the Vats , that if you say that all the ghouls were created by the FEV , then there isn ' t much difference between Harold and other ghouls . Chris Taylor wrote : < nowiki » > < / nowiki > Actually , a dip in FEV has a chance of modifying Intelligence , but it doesn ' t always increase it . Some people do gain increased intelligence , a larger majority lose intelligence and most people remain the same . It also depends if people have enough radiation damage to be turned into ghouls or super mutants . < nowiki > « < / nowiki > If so , then people dipped in the Vats can become ghouls instead of supermutants , if they are radiated . I think that easily matches Harold ' s case . . . Fallout 2 : Loxley ( F1 ) : < br > As you can see , Harold is called a ghoul in the game . Butch ( F1 ) : < br > As you can see , there are more muties in the Hub Old town , not only Harold ( though we don ' t see them in the game ) . And they are all called both ' mutants ' and ' ghouls ' . I think the point is that you call ' ghouls ' only the ones that were exposed to ' wild ' FEV in the air and radiation , and not the ones that were screwed - up results of dipping ( like Harold and Talius ) . I think both kinds should be called ' ghouls ' , because , though they were created with different methods , the result is identical , and they were both result of radiation and FEV ( ghouls of Necropolis are radiated people that were exposed to mutated FEV in the air , and Harold and Talius are result of dipping people with radiation damage - think this is what Chris Taylor meant ) . All good points - Tim Cain and Chris Taylor agree with you , and they say Harold ' s a ghoul . To quote statements within the past week : According to Chris , ghouls are irradiated humans exposed to FEV . According to Tim , ghouls are due solely to radiation . Both agree Harold is special . And I don ' t mean handicapped . Officially : Ghouls are a mix of FEV and radiation . Harold is a mutant who resembles a ghoul . Harold may have had some radiation damage before he was exposed to FEV , but his mutation ( outside of his surface appearance ) makes him different than a ghoul . Most ghouls are the result of extreme radiation + FEV exposure , but Harold ' s change was due primarily to FEV exposure ( again , he could have sucked up a few rads in the wastes without him knowing , especially considering how long he ran caravans in the wastes ) . He is hideously mutated enough so that he " looks " like a ghoul , but he ' s not technically one , and this is the mistake that Loxley makes ( Loxley only judges a book by its cover , and he knows nothing about genetics or anything beyond a surface appearance ) . You can call him a ghoul if you want , but the official answer is : " Harold is Harold . " Harold ' s special . BTW , glowing ghouls are ghouls that suck up too many rads " after " they have become ghouls . We originally wanted Lenny in F2 to be able to turn into a glowing ghoul when he drinks too much radioactive liquor , but we didn ' t put it in . One from Azael from the Fallout BIS message boards : 28 . I ' d really like to know this . Why did they become tribal s in such a short time ? Religious reasons ? Drugs ? Well , the long answer is read " " by George R . Stewart . The short answer is : Fallout 2D in color . Martin sent me a color PIP Boy ( though I had to crop it a bit ) . I ' m kind of in love with the black and white version , though , but I thought I ' d show you guys : Fallout 1 archeology . Continuing the exciting trend of last time , here ' s some more key words you can ask the talking head s in Fallout 1 with the " Tell Me Abouts . " This may not be a complete list , but these are all the ones listed in the design documentation . There is no documentation I can find for the non - talking heads , but if you happen to know any or find any other talking head key words I miss , let me know . There are some extras I ' ve found that were added later that don ' t have any voice acting attached to them , but they still display a message . This week goes from Tandi at Shady Sands to Set and Harry at the Necropolis . Let ' s start with that cute little bundle of deserty goodness , Tandi : And now slow , slurring Harry : And now that dirt - nappin ' norm - hating Set : BTW , if someone can point me to a pre - existing list of Tell Me Abouts , they will have my eternal gratitude . Take that for what it ' s worth . Fallout 2 character advancement . This shouldn ' t surprise anyone who ' s played Fallout 2 with a party , but as your main character goes up in levels , so do your party members . The rate they advance varies , but each character has a number of " stages " they advance through over the course of the game , usually based on their ability to learn . This week we ' ll give you stats for Cassidy , Myron , and Vic . I can actually provide skill levels for them this time . Note that in the skill screen shots below , their " tag skill " is highlighted on the PIP Boy screen . In any event , let ' s start with Cassidy , who ' s a four - stage character because he ' s cranky and old . And talks too much . His specialty is Small Guns . I designed him , and he ' ll always be one of my favorite F2 characters because of his sheer cussedness . And the fact he has funny floats depending on what type of chem or med you give him . Here ' s Myron ( I accept the blame for designing him ) , who ' s a four - stage character because he thinks he knows it all already and doesn ' t need to advance too high . His specialty ( drumroll ) is Science , but usually he just ends up a brainless husk as his brain is ripped out and put into the Robobrain . And here ' s Vic ( designed by Black Isle ' s very own Dave Hendee ) , a six - stage superhero because he ' s an early - game character . His specialty is Repair . Fallout 2 secret : Magic eightball . The magic eightball is a secret easter egg of sorts that only works for high Luck characters ; it ' s located inside the easternmost pool table on the second floor of the Shark Club in New Reno . You can use it any time to " answer questions , " just like you would with a real magic eightball . . . except if you ' re really lucky , you ' ll get real answers that are actually helpful . If your Luck is less than 9 , you won ' t get anything except the following messages ( some of which courtesy of Tom French , master programmer ) : If you have a Luck of 9 or 10 , however , you start getting specific answers to your questions : If you have a Luck of 9 or 10 , however , the following three messages also have a chance of popping up , and when they do , they activate three special locations in Vault City , New Reno , and Golgotha : Once the eightball displays these messages , you can then go to the toilet in New Reno and dig out some grenade s , go to the Vault City terminal to get some extra stimpacks , and go to the grave in Golgotha and get a few hundred bucks . These locations won ' t give anything until you see the message on the eightball . Thanks goes to Dan Spitzley for helping to program these encounters . There ' s one message missing from the list above - if you email me back what it is , I ' ll make you the big winner in the next update . In the original design , the eightball was also supposed to increase the frequency of special encounters as well as be a weapon you can throw , but we ended up axing that because the eightball was getting too filled with functionality . That ' s it for this update . " Hopefully " ( no promises ) , the next update should be coming out two weeks from now ( March 25 ) . Thanks for reading , Chris Avellone @ BIS