Wanamingo (Fallout 2)

Wanamingos, also referred to as aliens or alien things,OBJ DUDE.MSG (Fallout 2): "{1485}{}{A count of alien things slain by your hand.}" are mutant creatures that appear in Fallout 2.
In Fallout 2, they are called "wanamingos" in Redding, after the Great Wanamingo Mine, and "aliens" elsewhere, but eventually, the name "wanamingo" came to be used for the species as a whole across the wastes.
==Background==
Wanamingos are strange mutated creatures of an undetermined origins that emerged in New California in the first half of the 23rd century. Their first confirmed appearance was in Redding, where they suddenly emerged at the Great Wanamingo Mine a few years before 2241. The richest mine in Redding shut down after enslaved laborers forced to mine gold refused to fight them, abandoned their tools and fled the mine, blowing up its dynamite stores to seal up the creatures within. The mine shut down shortly afterwards, and its priceless equipment, including a control chip for an automated digger, was left behind.
Since then, the wanamingos kept to themselves, setting up a nest inside the lowest levels of the mine. Speculation about their origins became a popular pastime in Redding, leading to the emergence of many theories: That they were a previously unknown lifeform endemic to the region before the Great War, genetically engineered weapons, and even invading species from another planet.The Chosen One: "{139}{}{Hear any interesting rumors?}"Athabaska Dick: "{146}{}{Well, not much lately except about them goll-dang Wanamingos.}"The Chosen One: "{147}{}{Want-a-mongols? What the heck is that?}"Athabaska Dick: "{158}{}{You're tellin' me you ain't never heard of the Wanamingos?}"The Chosen One: "{160}{}{Nope, never heard of anything like that. Tell me about them.}"Athabaska Dick: "{165}{}{Well, some say they were here before the A-bombs, H-bombs, and all-what-else hit. Others say they were jean-eti-cally injuneered as weapons. An' then there's some what says that they're from a whole differ'nt planet. }"The Chosen One: "{166}{}{What are *they*? Who cares where they came from, just tell me what *they* are.}"Athabaska Dick: "{168}{}{Well, I don't rightly know what they are 'zactly. But I kin tell you this: they shut down the Wanamingo Mine just west of town a few years back.}"The Chosen One: "{169}{}{The Wanamingo mine?}"Athabaska Dick: "{171}{}{Yup. And the Great Wanamingo was the richest strike in these here parts, too. But now, nobody'll go near it. Heck, you could even buy it from Ascorti if you wanted to. But nobody will.}"The Chosen One: "{173}{}{I could buy it? Is it worth anything?}"Athabaska Dick: "{176}{}{Well, not right now it ain't. Haven't you heard anything I've said? It's filled with them damn Wanamingos. But if'n someone was to clean the place out - well that'd be a brahmin of a differ'nt color. Heck, you wouldn't even have to kill all of 'em.}"(Athabaska Dick's dialogue) Some speculated that they were supernatural creatures, called down by native tribes to punish white people for the nuclear holocaust, and impervious to gunfire.
===Biology===
Regardless of their origin, the wanamingos, as they came to be called after the mine they claimed as their nest, became a permanent fixture of the town. They weren't known for their intelligence, but rather, strength, ferocity, and incredibly sharp teeth combined with sucker-lined tentacles.The Chosen One: "{141}{}{Critters? What kind of critters?}"Ascorti: "{173}{}{We call 'em Wanamingos. They're some kind of all-fired weird critter with nasty teeth and suckers or somesuch. Not too intelligent, but nasty up-close.}"The Chosen One: "{174}{}{I see. And you want me to get rid of them?}"Ascorti: "{175}{}{You've got it. I knew you weren't as slow as you look. You can be right quick when you're of a mind to be.}"(Ascorti's dialogue) Anyone who entered the Great Wanamingo Mine typically wound up consumed by the wanamingos, giving it a reputation as a haunted place.The Chosen One: "{156}{}{Sounds pretty easy. How come you haven't done it already?}"Marge LeBarge: "{157}{}{It isn't as easy as all that. You see, the Great Wanamingo Mine's haunted. People go there and they don't come back. That's the big reason it's been shut down. Used to be a high-roller type place. Not any more, though.}"(Marge LeBarge's dialogue)
In terms of structure, the wanamingos are like no other creature. Their body is covered in slime and has no identifiable eyes or even a neck, starting with a large mouth lined with razor-sharp teeth, somewhere between four and fourteen inches long,The Chosen One: "{265}{}{If you need it so bad, how come you haven't gone to get it yourself?}"Dan McGrew: "{267}{}{Plenty of reasons, most of 'em hungry and nasty. Wanamingo mine's just chock-full of hungry Wanamingos.}"The Chosen One: "{268}{}{What the hell is a Wanna-mingle?}"Dan McGrew: "{270}{}{It's just the orneriest, nastiest, most vicious critter I think I've ever seen. It's got teeth four inches long. Oh, I mean four-teen inches long. But I think you can handle it.}"(Dan McGrew's dialogue) and ending in a stubby, rounded rear. Their most noticeable feature are the large, flapping tentacles they use during an attack to seize prey, lined with suction-feelers or suckers.The Chosen One: "{170}{}{What's a Wanamingo?}"Marge LeBarge: "{177}{}{A Wanamingo's just the single orneriest critter there is. Tall as two men, stronger than a bull brahmin, and with flappin' suckers instead of arms. Can't be hurt with guns, neither. S'posedly, injuns called 'em up for revenge on the white-man for what the war did. I don't put much stock in that, though.}"(Marge LeBarge's dialogue) Wanamingos are about the size of a brahmin and easily as strong, and are recognizable by their even worse smell. They are bipedal and digitigrade, with a hobbling gait, reportedly resembling something halfway between a radscorpion and a gecko,The Chosen One: "{177}{}{What do you mean?}"Athabaska Dick: "{179}{}{Well, there's some stuff in there that the owners of the Morningstar and the Kokoweef mines here in town would sure pay a pretty penny for.}"The Chosen One: "{180}{}{What kind of stuff?}"Athabaska Dick: "{182}{}{Well, ya see, mines used to be dug out by big machines. Heck, those machines are built to last. Both mines got big diggers. But - an' here's the money question - the dang little control chips weren't made so tough. Neither mine's got a chip that works. Heh-hee.}"The Chosen One: "{183}{}{I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here.}"Athabaska Dick: "{185}{}{Well, what I'm saying is that either mine owner would pay for one of these digger-control-chips. Heck, if they had a workin' machine and the other mine doesn't, they'd shut the other mine down - or buy 'em out - in no time.}"The Chosen One: "{186}{}{Too bad nobody knows where to get one of those chips, then.}"Athabaska Dick: "{188}{}{Squee-gee out your dang ears! I told you where to look for the damn chip. Ain't you been listening to a word I said? The Wanamingo mine had machines, and they were workin' 'til the time the mine got shut down. Prolly still chips down there. Jist waitin' fer someone to come along an' take 'em.}"The Chosen One: "{190}{}{Tell me about those Want-to-mangles, then.}"Athabaska Dick: "{192}{}{Well you see - here's the god's honest truth - I know someone who saw one up close-like, it was…(time passes)…With huge fangs that it uses to…(more time passes)…}"Athabaska Dick: "{193}{}{I had a friend once that I was workin' a claim with and one day…(time passes)…big as a brahmin and it smelled worse…(more time passes)…}"Athabaska Dick: "{194}{}{You're jist gonna fall asleep anyhow, but here goes nuthin.' It was late at night, see, and so…(time passes)…tracks like a cross 'tween a Radscorpion and a Gecko…(more time passes)… See, I told you you'd fall asleep.}"The Chosen One: "{195}{}{Huh, wha? (your head snaps up; you must have been dozing).}"Athabaska Dick: "{197}{}{…So, now you know. The slaves that used to work the mine blew up the dynamite stores and escaped, rather than face those Wanamingos. Shut down the mine right after and nobody went back.}"The Chosen One: "{198}{}{Where did you say the Great Wanamingo Mine is?}"Athabaska Dick: "{200}{}{Jist west of town. But I heard that some of the Wanamingos been coming into town late at night. So mebbe' you won't have to go out there to see 'em. Heh-hee.}"(Athabaska Dick's dialogue) perhaps due to their three-toed feet with non-retractable claws and a dewclaw.Clearly visible in the render
Wanamingos live in large groups, preferring underground, dark spaces. They exhibit a hive-like mentality,Fallout 2 Official Strategies & Secrets p.35: "Wanamingos are tough, very fast, and resistant to laser weaponry. Where they came from or what they're doing here is unknown. They aren't intelligent in the usual sense, but they do seem to have a hive-mind mentality. They're usually seen underground and in groups." living in packs or slews.WORLDMAP.MSG (Fallout 2): "{}{A slew of aliens.}"Note: The message is reused multiple times in the breakdown. The only known nest in Redding was centered around a gray/silver-colored wanamingo queen, which laid hard-shelled eggs. It's not known how the eggs were fertilized. Although all wanamingos possess something resembling a groin socket, the mechanics of reproduction are best left to the imagination.Fallout 2 combat description: "## Alien Thing#{1800}{}{the head}{1801}{}{the left tentacle}{1802}{}{the right tentacle}{1803}{}{the body}{1804}{}{the right foot}{1805}{}{the left foot}{1806}{}{the eyes?}{1807}{}{the groin socket}{1808}{}{uncalled}"(COMBAT.MSG (Fallout 2)) Similarly, it's not clear where the air intake was located.Fallout 2 combat description: "## series 6800 - Alien#{6800}{}{, sliding past the creature's defenses}{6801}{}{, smearing some of its slime off}{6802}{}{, mashing some of its suction-feelers}{6803}{}{, damaging its air (?) intake}{6804}{}{, knocking the icky stuff out of it}{6805}{}{, almost tipping it over}{6806}{}{, damaging some of its tentacles}"(COMBAT.MSG (Fallout 2)) 
==Characteristics==
Wanamingos are powerful creatures with a significant amount of health and protection, ranging from equivalent to (roughly) combat armor on regular aliens to levels comparable to power armor on tough aliens and the queen. Their only weakness is fire (Flamers have to contend with minimal Damage Threshold and Damage Reduction ratings) and the fact they rely on melee attacks.
They have a generous amount of Action Points and have very high Critical Chances, and may knock the target down, gaining a significant advantage. They share the same AI packet as deathclaws, seeking to close distance where possible and attacking repeatedly.
Wanamingos can irradiate the player character (and only the player character). Every successful attack also makes a roll against the player character's Luck, with a -1 modifier. If they fail the roll, then they are irradiated by 10-40 rads. There is no limit to the radiation damage that can accumulate this way. However, this ability is limited only to aliens spawned in random encounters, as only they spawn with the right script. Redding wanamingoes are unaffected.
==Variants==
===Wanamingo===
The regular variant of the wanamingo (or alien in random encounters). It is weaker than the regular variants and can be thought of as a juvenile form, with half the Damage Thresholds of tough aliens (Damage Resistances stay the same), making them comparable to humans in combat armor. They have 25% less health than their bigger brethren and "only" 15% critical chance. 
They are also much more rare than the stronger variants. There are only seven of them in Redding (two in the tunnels beneath the downtown area and five in the upper level of the Great Wanamingo Mine), and a further three in the hold of the PMV Valdez. 
On the worldmap, they can appear in random encounters in the central desert area and around San Francisco, though even here the lesser wanamingos are rare: 
* There are only three encounters that use the EPA_Alien table that spawns them exclusively (with 6 to 9 per encounter), 
* there are no less than 14 EPA_Tough_Alien calls in the desert and around San Francisco, which spawns 3-6, 5-8, or 10-12 (SF) aliens, at a 30/70 ratio of regular and tough aliens respectively.
===Tough wanamingo===
The tough wanamingo is best thought of as the basic variant of the wanamingo. At 34 Armor Class (comparable to the advanced power armor Mk II) and resistances equal to the regular power armor, with 160 Hit Points, high melee damage and a 26% critical chance it's a very dangerous combatant, and is much more common than its lesser brother. It can be tackled at level 12 with a larger party and automatic weapons, though it will remain a significant challenge until the endgame. 
There are a total of eleven tough wanamingos in Redding (two in the tunnels beneath the mining camp and nine in the nest at Great Wanamingo Mine), with a further seven tough aliens in the hold of the PMV Valdez. 
Furthermore, in random encounters the player can encounter them in the Central Valley and around San Francisco, with fourteen calls to the EPA_Tough_Alien table. These spawns 3-6, 5-8, or 10-12 (SF) aliens, at a 30/70 ratio of regular and tough aliens respectively, which means that out of every three aliens spawned, two will be toughs.
===Wanamingo queen===
The unique gray-silver wanamingo found exclusively at the Great Wanamingo Mine is the source of the wanamingos, laying eggs within the complex to perpetuate her kind. Although it has the highest SPECIAL scores and the highest resistances (though only slightly tougher than the tough wanamingo/tough alien), it has only 10 Armor Class and "just" 23% Critical Chance, though it can deal almost 33% more damage when it hits. 
There is only one queen in the game, and can be reached directly by taking the mine elevator at the surface of the Great Wanamingo Mine down into the depths.
==Appearances==
Wanamingos of this type appear in Fallout 2.
==Behind the scenes==
* A running joke in the game is that the Chosen One can't really spell wanamingo properly. They call them want-a-mongol, wanna-mingle, and wana-whatchamacallit on several occasions. Chris Avellone also didn't spell it correctly, spelling it with a double n (i.e. wannamingo instead of wanamingo).
* Judging by the notation used in WORLDMAP.TXT, wanamingos/aliens were originally tied to the cut EPA location or its even earlier draft, the Earth Protection Agency. The horrifically toxic lake was explicitly mentioned as being a catalyst for mutations, including floaters and centaurs. The finished game has several tables prefixed EPA_, which include encounters with deathclaws, floaters, centaurs, and aliens.
* Chris Avellone did not like the idea of wanamingos, and described them in the Fallout Bible as the results of a pre-War (or possibly Enclave) FEV experiment, intended to genetically engineer creatures that could be unleashed in enemy territory, with an unusually long (but not indefinite) lifespan. The wanamingos encountered in New California somehow escaped confinement, and made lairs in the dark places of the wasteland. Furthermore, they were equipped with a genetic "dead man's switch" to keep them from breeding excessively. Their genetic clock would stop around 2246 (or five years after they encountered by the Chosen One), or earlier for older generations, and the Chosen One's cleansing of the Great Wanamingo Mine would have also destroyed their largest nest in the wastes. While Avellone noted this was a personal decision, he noted that as far as the Black Isle continuity was concerned, they were already dead and "their irradiated shells are scattered along the floor of abandoned mines throughout northern California where they make nice crunching noises when you step on them."Chris Avellone, Fallout Bible 0: "The wannamingos are a result of FEV virus experiments, but they are now becoming sterile. They are not aliens, but word is they were designed as FEV-tailored weapons for waging war on other countries... and they got loose. They do live a long time, but they were dying out at the time of Fallout 2. They have only been sighted in the F2 area and nowhere else in the wastelands.
The eggs you see in Fallout 2 are the last generation of Wannamingoes to exist in the wasteland; the young Wannamingoes seen in F2 will perish in five years, and their parents a few years before that - an internal genetic clock will simply stop ticking, and they'll fall over dead. The Wannamingoes are a vicious mutant breed that had their moment in the sun, and now their sun has set.
To put the tombstone on their extinction, the largest known nest of Wannamingoes were wiped out when the Great Wannamingo mine was reclaimed by Redding with the help of a traveling tribal. The mother was killed, and the last remaining eggs were hunted down, stepped on, and then the remains were examined by local scientists and doctors who came to the extinction conclusions mentioned above.
Again, Wannamingoes are not aliens – they are a curious mutant or genetically-designed fighting machine that has only been able to find a home in the cold, dark places of the wastes.
It is possible that the wannamingoes were old Enclave experiments (or even experiments from before the Great War), and if this is true, then it's likely their genetic/biological deadman's switch was purposely engineered to keep them from breeding past a certain generation.
As a final note, this is strictly a personal decision on my part. If you want them to live for fan fiction, pen-and-paper role-playing campaign purposes, or for your own peace of mind, feel free to have some of them survive the stopping of their genetic clock – in the Black Isle universe, however, the little buggers are already dead and their irradiated shells are scattered along the floor of abandoned mines throughout northern California where they make nice crunching noises when you step on them. "Chris Avellone, Fallout Bible 2: "Sorry about the error on the Wannamingoes and sterility – I had forgotten about the mother and the eggs in Redding. In any event, to clarify, the eggs you see in Fallout 2 are the last generation of Wannamingoes to exist in the wasteland; the young Wannamingoes seen in F2 will perish in five years, and their parents a few years before that - an internal genetic clock will simply stop ticking, and they'll fall over dead. The Wannamingoes are a vicious mutant breed that had their moment in the sun, and now their sun has set. To put the tombstone on their extinction, the largest known nest of Wannamingoes were wiped out when the Great Wannamingo mine was reclaimed by Redding with the help of a traveling tribal. The mother was killed, and the last remaining eggs were hunted down, stepped on, and then the remains were examined by local scientists and doctors who came to the extinction conclusions mentioned above. Again, Wannamingoes are not aliens – they are a curious mutant or genetically-designed fighting machine that has only been able to find a home in the cold, dark places of the wastes.
It is possible that the wannamingoes were old Enclave experiments (or even experiments from before the Great War), and if this is true, then it's likely their genetic/biological deadman’s switch was purposely engineered to keep them from breeding past a certain generation. As a final note, this is strictly a personal decision on my part. If you want them to live for fan fiction, pen-and-paper role-playing campaign purposes, or for your own peace of mind, feel free to have some of them survive the stopping of their genetic clock – in the Black Isle universe, however, the little buggers are already dead and their irradiated shells are scattered along the floor of abandoned mines throughout northern California where they make nice crunching noises when you step on them."(Fallout Bible 2)
* The wanamingo appearance is very similar to the heads of H.R. Giger xenomorphs of the Alien series. They are also referred to as "aliens" outside Redding. 
==Gallery==
Wanamingo render.jpg|Wanamingo render
FO2 Wanamingo target.png|Targeted wanamingo
FO2 Wanamingo.png|Wanamingo
FO2 Wanamingo queen.png|Queen
WanamingoEgg.png|Egg
==References==
Non-game
Category:Fallout 2 creatures
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