• Member Since 25th Jan, 2012
  • offline last seen 7 hours ago

Kkat


More Blog Posts236

  • 2 weeks
    Stepping Outside

    art by BuvanyBu

    It's time to step outside my writing comfort zone.

    I have a new story.

    Read More

    21 comments · 853 views
  • 137 weeks
    A Friend in Need

    Sprocket Doggingsworth, author of the amazing story Fallout: Equestria - The Hooves of Fate and the wonderfully uplifting Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! blogs, has

    Read More

    10 comments · 2,115 views
  • 211 weeks
    Prey (update)

    cover art by Icekatze!

    Read More

    24 comments · 3,511 views
  • 214 weeks
    Prey

    cover art by Icekatze!

    9 comments · 1,338 views
  • 215 weeks
    Watch (This) Space

    Hello everyone!

    I've been gone on hiatus for a few years. I stopped watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic in the middle of the seventh season. But a few months ago, my interest was rekindled. And the last two seasons were fantastic. The high point, for me, is the new characters -- the Student Six -- who breathed fresh life into the show.

    Read More

    116 comments · 6,291 views
Jun
11th
2016

On the Enclave · 11:26am Jun 11th, 2016

art by Sinrar

I want to share something that is more than a little personal: the inspiration behind the Grand Pegasus Enclave.

I don’t think I have ever talked about that. No interview has ever brought it up. But right now, there is a discussion going on right now about the social commentary in Fallout: Equestria, and much of the discussion has focused on the Enclave. So this seems like a good time to broach the topic.

However, I do so with some trepidation. I do not wish the comments section of the blog to turn into a political argument. So I have something else I would like the comments to focus on instead:

Saturday we will be getting the last episode before the mid-season hiatus of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I hope everyone has been enjoying my Afterthoughts blogs for the episodes. I intend to continue them when the show returns.

I do not plan to continue Angel’s Pip-Boy Diary. I have posted all 135 pages that I wrote of it, the last post being over a month ago. At this point, I have played so far ahead of what I have written that even with my notes, I doubt I can properly recapture Angel’s mindset for events that I played months ago. I am happy that APBD got the positive response that it did, and I hope that canceling it is not too much of a disappointment.

However, with the end of APBD and the break in new episodes, I’m not sure what will follow my next Afterthoughts. So I am interested in hearing your suggestions for my blog. I absolute want to continue to provide new content. You’re kind enough to follow me. I want to give you something to follow. :twilightsmile:

Now, about the Enclave…

Did you know that when your immune system is completely compromised, any severe upset, even an emotional one, can be devastating to your health?

My father served in the U.S. Air Force for many years. After he left the service, he worked in the Forest Service and as a volunteer fire fighter until his cancer and the chemotherapy rendered him physically unable to continue. Still, he had considerable time left when he was stuck by an emotional blow that sent his health into an irrevocable downward spiral.

That blow came on September 11, 2001. He died two days later.

I scattered my father's ashes, then watched the road my country went down as our citizens and our leaders reacted to the same event.

When I created the Enclave of Fallout: Equestria, I made them a society that was wrapped up in self-interest. Who turned a blind eye to the suffering of others, and whose citizenry were completely ignorant of the affects of their military's decisions on those beyond their borders.

I created an Enclave that reacted to a terrorist attack with jingoism and misplaced aggression, using the attack as an excuse to wage war on the wrong people.

But I needed to go a step beyond that. Because the Enclave was not just a faceless analogy of post-9/11 America. Nor was it a monolithic, one-dimensional Big Bad. This was a society made up on individual ponies. The soldiers were not mindless automatons. And everyone had the ability to strive for virtue. To be better.

I created a military where many individual members saw that what they were doing was wrong and stood up, refusing to follow immoral orders. The soldiers in my Enclave had to choose between doing what was right and doing what they were supposed to do; they faced a crisis of conscience where the virtue of loyalty seemed to be pitted against justice and compassion.

My father was a man of great honesty and integrity. Had he been a pegasus, he would have been amongst those to take a stand.

animated art by Alfa995

Report Kkat · 4,538 views · Story: Fallout: Equestria ·
Comments ( 65 )

Wow.......That's deep...... I never really saw it that way

I unfortunately fell off the wagon while reading FoE, so I never actually got to the Enclave. However, I do appreciate this insight for what it presents and brings forward to the table. I have watched several discussions and arguments about the nature of the Enclave in different places as of late, and I'm glad to see you set things relatively straight in that regard.

That does explain quite a lot. Not much else to say on the matter.

As for future blogs, well, do whatever you want. More behind-the-scenes stuff, more settlement photos, whatever tickles your fancy.

While the enclave may be that way, really, they never come across that way, in near any sense. None of the stories approach them as anything but the faceless antagonists that get what's coming to them.

Yes, you have heroic pegasi. Yes, those find a bit more work as a foil for the main focus, But maybe one story so far has an enclave pegasus as a main hero. They just are the kain to the cecil of the group. Or there to die horribly/fittingly. The changelings are portrayed better in the wasteland than the pegasi. And really, I can't find fault with it. I can't. It might be a horrible thing to say, but it's what you get with a militaristic group that makes the brotherhood look nice.

The enclave itself, is a machine. It doesn't care, doesn't worry, just keeps on farm raising its idiots to be fed into the wasteland below. And I don't feel a lick of compassion for it or those that don't see to learn. You can fight ignorance and doctrine, the pegasi choose not to most of the time.

That blow came on September 11, 2011.

Did you mean 2001?

But right now, there is a discussion going on right now about the social commentary in Fallout: Equestria,

And.... yeah there;s a reason I avoid those types of things. It is interesting hearing your reasoning but... I just look at what they are in 'verse alone. So long as it makes sense within the world the story creates, that's all the really matters to me, any link outside the story is applicability at best. Always loathed the whole "But what does it mean? What is the author trying to say about society?" stuff. Did lead to a lot of entertaining English classes for everyone else as they got to just sit back and listen to me and the teacher argue constantly about what mattered, the "Deeper meaning" and finding out what the story 'meant', or the story itself and how fun, engaging, and self consistent it was, how things did or did not make sense solely within itself.

And yeah I tend to go with a 100% Watsonian view for stories, wish I'd known that term then to better explain things.

For me, for some reason, every time I think of the Enclave, I think of this song:

(lyrics start at 1:35, pretty much all of them relevant)
Keeping tight control over the populace they govern(well, until the clouds are cleared at least), cracking down hard on dissent, they sound a bit like an Orwellian dystopia.

"With our technology, we'll always keep you safe" indeed.

4014809

Did you mean 2001?

Yes. Thank you.

4014803 And that is on those other stories for not getting what The Enclave were. Calamity makes very clear, and we see plenty of proof that Pegasus=\=Enclave. Not every pegasus was a member of the Enclave, and even those that were, not all of them were die hard believers, most were simply it's victims, fooled by it's lies and tricked into believing they were the only hope for survival. The majority of pegasi were just like any pony, they would have been more then willing to help, to break the cloud cover, to rejoin the other tribes and help them recover, if they hadn't been convinced since birth that everything under the clouds is a brutal, hopeless death world where simply touching the ground could mean death from all the radiation and other horrors contaminating everything.

You are right in how the Enclave tend to come off in stories, but that is an issue with those stories not getting what they were, not with how they were in FOE.

4014815 if your talking about scottalue impretty sure she is a little younger than that, af most 15 years old which would not be old enough to do that

4014817 Yup, the people are their own. And that is true of every stable dweller, or town in the wasteland. Every grows up differently, and sees differently. And why I said what I did about its machine like nature. It wants soldiers as the wasteland breeds raiders. Doctrine and Enforced Ignorance, or bribery respectively is a seductive combo. And while what you say about the teachings is right for their beliefs.

The reason I don't have much in the way of sympathy is that they don't question, out of a variety of reasons. Some do, and yes, manage to rise as they fall. But the rest, are far too happy to put on the blinders and be cogs in the machine. "I was just following orders." is par for the course, and accepted/rewarded. The brotherhood in its good and its bad, manages to achieve a nature of each chapter is unique. The enclave never does. They are the threats of the skies, the great evil above the cloud, in how we see them presented, and perception is everything here.

Yes, are the majority of people innocent? Likely, but ultimately, we are far more akin to care about a town in the wasteland for trying to live, than the skies above. I do agree with your statement, but sadly, by this point, none of what i've read for things is going to change the perception on them. Not all ponies are created equal among the tribes in the wasteland. A dead pegasi isn't going to have most batting an eye (Outside Murky) but a dead earth pony or unicorn might.

It's not fair, or right in its way, but it is how it is unfortunately.

4014827 And again, that is an issue with the stories not using them right and not doing a good job of making clear what is going on up there. Not on The Enclave itself.

Yes not many Pegasi question things, because they have no reason to, they are told this stuff since Birth, have had no chance to see anything contrary, they know The Enclave has been the only thing keeping them alive for generations. It controls all information, keeps them from learning stuff that would cause them to question things. They are as much victims of The Enclave as anypony on the surface. Juts in a different way. It's easy to armchair quarterback things, but it's not easy to do that when you are in the position the Pegasi were in.

There is a reason every Dashite we know of were Enclave ponies who had been sent below the clouds on scouting missions, they were the ones able to see the truth, to realize they were being lied to. And we did see, once they learned better, once Pegasi were able to see the truth, the majority of them did want to help.

Wow I did Not se that coming, but now that you mention it it does mskr a lot of sense. Well played, well played.

Wow... KKat, you have given me a lot to think about for my fanfics...

I kinda saw it as mostly an isolationist society.

4014955 More FOE worldbuilding, I like this idea.


OH! Or do some blogs going over your thoughts on various characters in the show.

I'm sorry that your father pass away. :fluttershysad:

The Enclave had always been one of my favorite factions in Fallout: Equestria, simply because they aren't irrevocably evil. It's difficult to hate them, even for their actions, simply because they didn't all decide to go on a war path with the surface, and some even resisted said path.

This is in contrast with Red Eye. While he was most definitely not evil, per se, he knew that what he was doing was wrong. His army was built off of the idea of a brighter future, and the end justified the means. While it can be said that not everyone in their consented to mass slavery, anyone who wasn't a slave had in fact consented in one way or another.

I dunno. I've always been a fan of things like the Enclave where on the surface they seem evil but in practice they're all just doing their best. And I can definitely appreciate the connection to the United States in that regard...

If I had my druthers, I'd like to see a story that details the War itself, specifically the daily lives of the Princesses, the Ministry Mares, and the other handful of prominent figures mentioned, a fleshing-out of the backstory, if you will, from the events just before the Littlehorn Massacre to just after Celestia's entry into the SPP.

I'm sorry to hear about your father, Kkat: he indeed sounds like a brave man, the kind we are in sore need of right now. I imagine it's difficult sharing something so personal with strangers, but opening up like that only deepens the appreciation we have for you.

As far as the Enclave goes, I'm actually surprised that I never put two-and-two together on that until now. The signs were all there, but I never really read into it properly - just another layer of depth to an already complex story, it seems. I think one of the things that I enjoyed most about Fallout: Equestria was that, while it was a crossover, it was the kind that weaved the two settings together seamlessly, rather than try to just copy-paste everything from one world to another without adjustment. Red Eye is similar to Asher, yes, but the two are very different in many ways; the same goes for the Master and the Goddess. Some of the aesthetics and goals of these villains are comparable, but many of the things driving them or aspects of their personalities are rooted deeply in the MLP universe, not the Fallout one.

The Enclave is just such an example. In Fallout. they are indeed secretive, fascist, and oppressive. But their objectives are entirely different: they are aiming for total genocide, whereas the Enclave of Fallout: Equestria simply wants to wall itself off from the world, selfishly hoarding what food and power it can grab at the expense of everyone. One never gets the impression in the Fallout games that the Enclave contains mostly good people that are simply misguided, but the Grand Pegasus Enclave has exactly that kind of moral complexity that make them a far more believable antagonist. It's population is cruel and working to the detriment of the wasteland below without even realizing it, due to the omnipresent cloud cover. When they finally gain an understanding of what is really happening, many show their better nature... but it's an uphill battle to fight that ignorance. Fitting with the themes of your story, however, that redemption is possible: they can be better, and will be with the efforts of a selfless hero. The original Fallout contains no such chance.

The Enclave doesn't seem to be an exact copy of post-9/11 America, but one can certainly see the parallels you created: interventionism, shock-and-awe, overwhelming response to terrorist threats, etc. Considering the language in this recent presidential election, however, I wonder if a very different quality of the Enclave is starting to worm its way into American political thought: isolationism. Do you think that the attitude of the Enclave - wanting to separate itself out and not care about the rest of the world - is starting to show itself now, when we have candidates talking about walling our selves off, literally and metaphorically?

Sad we won't see more of Angel, but your reasoning makes perfect sense. I was considering doing something similar when I started a Survival playthrough, so I'd been using video capture to let me go back and see what I'd been doing.

Until one day I forgot to turn off the video capture after playing, and woke up to a 23 gig video file. :facehoof: That was the end of that experiment.

As for your blog, I wouldn't mind seeing you compare stuff you encounter in FO4 with what you'd written for F:E. Or just stuff you wanted to fit into the story, but couldn't (for space or pacing or whatever reason).

I always prefered your version of the enclave over what we were given in the fallout series, by far. Did not get the cvonnection between our rather broken country mindset and that though. Or maybe it was just so obvious to me i never took it into account. who knows.

I lost my aunt about two years ago to cancer. Fought long and damn hard against it, but ended up. withered and worn by the end.

Sounds like America before the World Wars.

hi hi

I look forward to reading Angel's PipBoy Diary once I've had a chance to play Fallout 4 myself, though it may be a while it is still on my list of things to do.


I'm going to try to not get political here, but I will say this.

I never lost any family to war. My grandfather was fortunate to be posted somewhere that didn't see any fighting, though many of his friends were not so fortunate, and on the rare occasions when he was willing to talk about it at all, he had no kind things to say about the world leaders who start wars in the first place. I have however, lost friends in a manner of speaking. After a tour in Afghanistan, a good friend of mine from school never spoke to me again. (I can't speak personally to the troubles that many veterans face, but they are many, and I hope people can be aware and try to treat people well, even if they don't know the whole story.)


I always figured that the Enclave in Fallout Equestria was, if not a reference to the USA after 9/11, then it was a remarkable case of convergent evolution. I'm glad to finally have that question answered.

In the Fallout Equestria RPG that I run, I have definitely been drawing on US history for inspiration when trying to portray the Enclave, and Psychology is a field of intense interest for me. As much as people try to frame conflicts as matters of good vs evil, that is almost never the full picture, and it is a lot deeper and more complicated. Far more often, it is a matter of good intentions vs good intentions, or perhaps evil vs evil, but I digress I am not trying to be political here.

One thing I always try to investigate in my games is the motivations and point of view of the individuals involved, not treating them like some monolithic entity, or some primal, metaphorical expression of a basic emotion. Nobody can get away with running something quite like the Milgram Experiment today, but I think it does still give some useful information on how people react to being given immoral orders from an authority figure. Even when people have strong misgivings about doing something, almost half of them will follow orders.

When you look through US history, you can find plentiful examples of people both upstanding and villainous. Perhaps specifically, I have been drawing on the writings of people who lived through the US civil war when trying to come up with NPC characters, since in my game the Enclave is in the middle of a civil war itself. (Brinksmanship is a dangerous game, and players should realize just how likely people are to reciprocate and escalate rather than back down, even in the face of overwhelming odds.)

Also, when dealing with the Enclave's "drive to take the the griffin skies..." (Calamity, page 1649), I drew inspiration from the US's own treatment of Native Americans, which was also a complicated history full of courage, regret, and villainy.

"I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew."

- Georgia volunteer and Confederate Colonel, James Mooney


I think perhaps that some of the motivation behind the Enclave comes down to a rather uncomplicated perspective on innocence that honestly a lot of people subscribe to. There's this idea that someone can try their best and even do bad things, but so long as they can make a reasonable case that they couldn't have known any better, they're innocent. From that frame of mind, I seems quite likely to me that a lot of pegasi in the Enclave had the goal of preserving the citizen's innocence. And by extension, when Littlepip threatens to reveal the truth, she is seen as trying to take away their innocence. (I suspect it may be part of the reason why people have so much trouble explaining why something that is supposed to be a conflict between good and evil is actually more complicated.) But I'm on Littlepip's side when she says, "Maybe... I think... it's time for them to grow up."

4015010

I think perhaps it is a flaw in a great many video games, where the player is supposed to pick sides in a conflict, that the player is expected to pick a side and accept them exactly as they are. It seems very rare that the player is given the opportunity to change the nature of any of the sides they might choose for the better, either before or after the choice is made. And really, when you're a world changing protagonist, maybe you should be able to change some people's minds about important things.

For what I can see, the Enclave justify itself being a military organization is supposed to lead and to protect the population that it looks over and conditions the population according to make sure that most of them would prefer to tray in it then then to ever take the risk of leaving it. They control everything from information, education, food and even birth population. Your average pegasus are cogs in a machine that doesn’t know anything about critical thinking and they see the Enclave run every facet of their lives. They don’t know anything about life outside the Enclave. They were never thought about anything other than that Enclave wants them to think. A citizen of can’t survive outside the Enclave, because they have never been prepared. The Enclave represent offers a beacon of order and security form what can a Both their parents serve the Enclave at one point of the other and if they want to have foals and stay in Enclave they would have to serve in the military and enforce it laws. They can’t travel outside the Enclave because it doesn’t permit it and doesn’t allow them to contemplate other options.
I would be surprised to know that most citizen of the Enclave is vaguely aware that there are survivors on the surface, but it is so remote to their lives, and all the censorship that they can’t really relate to them in any meaningful way, and they only way they could try to go and help them is to forsake everything they have ever known for the rest of their liver, every one they aver know, be branded a traitor for everyone in the Enclave to see, all the security and order amenities that the Enclave offered for what they would imagine third world staving pony that wouldn’t numerally help him in return. By joining the Wasteland a lone pegasus would be just as beleaguered, if not more than the wastlander that they are trying to help in the first place.

The Enclave leaders is composed almost entirely of an elites club, with a long military tradition, how only admit new member how show they think like them. They make all the rules and they are only answerable to themselves. They had no other ambition to itself then make sure that they are in charge and that their interests are served its interest and will get rid of does that don’t. The average Pegasus don’t have the same rights, like speech like we would have in the west would, and those rights are conditional to serving the Enclave otherwise they can cut you off. The Enclave is obviously if a fascist government, but the citizen are so used to them they don’t know anything else other them to follow their rules, along with a few reminders to keep them knowing how is in charges of their live. The biggest example it the birth control they have over it citizens. What better way to force compliance then to control the future of the family line then by having the power to decide that you have a kid or not. They have to show to them that you deserve that right to them by showing your loyalty to them or be accused in front of everyone else they are traitors by breaking the rules and the others would think that they had betrayed their loyalty and be shunned.
For most pegasus, the Equestria is just part of the past that has nothing to do with them anymore or this ideas they had so love and tolerance and the Enclave toke its place in the vacuum of power afterwards. History is probably presented, like our own centered around the Enclave and all the “good” things that they had done for its citizens and there is no pegasy nation without the Enclave.

I would blame most the pegasuee for not rebelling against the Enclave intransigence and leaving it would feel like having a part of them ripped out and would lose a lot of their sense of being; and the idea for most would be terrifying to say the least just as much as to start anew in life. The only person that I could imagine that would leave the ideality or the foolhardy that think that they can live without and the annals of history would make sure that they were wrong in the Enclave and the fact they can’t return without being shot down would prevent them from ever proving them right.

My condolences for your father. He sounded like a courageous and just man. I think the US would have been honored to have him today.

I'm glad that you could channel that into the Enclave. Justified villains were always the most interesting to me. If one could sympathize with a villain, then they felt done right.

As far as the blog entries you do, I woul like to see more of the 'Where You Hang Your Hat' blogs. I really like seeing your creativity on display.

Well, I for one have always enjoyed your blogs myself. i hope you do more in the future. And I'm sorry about your father. God bless him for his service to our country.

And now... oh boy. First off... I knew that already, and am surprised no one else made any connection. Ugh,,, Kkat, you know my politics and such by now, so you may be shocked to hear I agree with you as far as that goes. A few differences here and there of course, but overall... But the enclave...

I'd compare them to the EU then say Big Brother. Incomprehensibly powerful fear mongerers and dividers..; and ones who were simply not being listened, thus the push back into the wastes. Yes, there are good ponies there, but it was sadly a case of too little to late.

That first picture is of a flock of rare giraffe-pegasus crossbreeds. :rainbowlaugh:

I honestly never thought of it like that... So your enclave was a way to honor your father? That's... damn.

I wasn't expecting anything this deep, and I'm not sure what to say beyond that I'm sorry for your loss.

This certainly shows the Enclave in a new light for me, though the themes of enthusiasm for military intervention and ignorance on what was actually going on with it were always present.

All interesting things to consider.

Can't give any real feedback that hasn't already been said and far better then I ever could. But the Attacks on New Appleloosa and Friendship city give an interesting thoughts on how such lies being exposed can have a variety of effects on soldiers when the facts they are told don't exactly meet up with the truth they are seeing.

Sad to hear about what happened with your father. But hopefully you have many happy memories of him. I have a few of some long gone relatives. All faded of course, but they do give me some joyful feelings when they come long and remind me of things from my past.

4015495
This... all my this.

THUS I INVOKE THE POWER OF FANBOY!

Kkat thank you for one of the greatest stories I have ever read, I'm sorry for the lose of your dad and am grateful for his service to the America that use to be. for what you can do during the hiatus is relax and maybe write some more, please.:twilightsmile:

4015697
In short...

SATISFY OUR COCKATOO! HAPPY COCK IS BEST COCK! :yay:
I.imgbox.com/GqnhcLGj

I don't want to be rude or off topic, but can I just say that the ponies in the first pic look like giraffes?

I just read that your father died, and I'm laughing at how the Enclave is based off of the U.S. government.
I'm a terrible person.
Though the reason I found it funny was because even many Americans know that our government is full of Gerrymandering fucknuggets, and that going by majority vote in a nation with sub-par (at least compared to other first world countries) education is a plan doomed to fail.

I like turtles.

The depiction of the Enclave in Fo:E was one of the most impressive bits of worldbuilding, in my opinion. I may be completely wrong here, but I got the impression that you had a lot more designed behind the scenes which wasn't literally presented in the story than what actually made it into the story. And I know how hard it can be to create an elaborate fleshed-out world and not actually show the reader everything you've come up with. I can only imagine your notes. It's like you built a real living society up in the clouds. But it always felt to me like there was much more which could have been said about them. And yet, you gave just the amount which the story needed. Perhaps it's because your skill as an author had reached much greater heights at that point in the story. But I've always been curious how much more you came up with for the enclave than you revealed.

My deepest condolences KKat. I'm sorry. :fluttercry:

I'm sure your father would've been very proud of you of the influence you've had on others lives. :twilightsmile:

You've created a world that has us take a step back at our own world and lives and allows us to look for ways to strive to be better.

As others have stated, condolences on the passing of your father.

I'll miss APD, your style there was incredible. Hopefully one day the muse will bite again and you'll be able to continue, but if not, that's life also.

And the Enclave... honestly I never considered the FoE Enclave to be truly a cut&paste of the canon Enclave. Nowhere is this more clearly shown than when Derpy pulls off her Radboom and blows a whole in the cloud layer that a bunch of pegasi come down through to see what the land below is really like. In chapter 42 we meet some ordinary pegasi from above the clouds, and they show a range of standpoints and personal views, from outright condemning the assaults made by the Enclave soldiers to refusing to listen because Calamity was a known "traitor" to the Enclave.

By contrast, the canon Enclave pretty much considered the annihilation of every single person who wasn't Enclave a nearly required step in the reclamation of the world.

No more Angel?
This saddens me.
Have you thought of maybe just writing about the most pivotal events, like moral choices etc, instead of documenting everything?

4018824
eh... there are no moral choices in f4. the morality system was ripped out to make way for all the disappointment

Analyzing the reasons the Enclave soldiers are given, it becomes more and more clear that there was always a deeper meaning behind why they were cut off, told things that weren't true. Though, I believe it's not just a more present thing. As Rainbow Dash stayed behind, staying loyal to the war effort, the rest fled and she was branded a traitor - the icon of the Enclave, I could assume. The Enclave was presented as a standup force, one that doesn't cower... which leads me to believe a deeper reason resides behind them abandoning Equestria. Could they of been threatened the same as when they made their grand return if they didn't follow their orders? Rainbow couldn't of been the only one who felt the way she did.

After seeing the world below, the Enclave soldiers who disobeyed their orders showed they feel the same, or in some way similar, of how Rainbow felt. They seen that being ordered to kill the ponies below was wrong, any pony with the ability to see the wrongness of shooting innocent and unarmed ponies would contest the orders, good or bad morals aside.

Just... damn...

4018929 I disagree. While you couldn't at any point voice moral concerns to the leaders of the factions, whether or not that's an effect of bad writing or the intention to make those thoughts a subtext, or both, as the game did a fantastic job of inciting you to ruminate over the truth of synths, and which faction was the most morally correct, even if it was really never directly addressed. I would very much like to hear your thoughts on Fallout 4.

4019757
Well.... I'd hesitate to take up space on another users page, but since this is Kkat, a fellow fallout freak, so...


Ehh... its not a bad game. Its good, really. But... it is also the embodiment of a fear of Fallout 3 made real. 4 is just skyrim with guns. Look at the ridiculously overpowered melee system, they just ported that over from skyrim! I don't mind much the same engine, since 3 just used gamebryo of Oblivion, but there, you see they maxed out the thing, a feat which is all the more impressive given how bleak 3 is compared to oblivion, but 4... They also went back to the blandness of 3 in terms of characterization. Look at vegas: Mr House, Joshua Graham, Ulysses, all these interesting and engaging characters. I can barely remember any from three and maybe the detective synth from four. And we can see that 4 wanted to achieve it and just fell flat.

Maybe I put too much hope into it. Bethesda did put a lot of heart into it, and maybe, just maybe, it couldn't have lived up to what I built it up to be. It did have pretty big shoes to fill after all! But... it just hasn't lived up to the promise so far the way Doom has.

I want to share something that is more than a little personal: the inspiration behind the Grand Pegasus Enclave. I don’t think I have ever talked about that.

Yeah, the inspiration was the Enclave from the Fallout games.

4019757 Your post brought this wonderful Shoddycast video to mind:

Login or register to comment