Forums » Fallout

Fallout 76 - Ghouls?

    • 1467 posts
    June 8, 2018 8:02 PM EDT

    So, I suppose this is a bit more of a discussion for the Lore-savvy among us, but Fallout 76 takes places, from what we know nearly 200 years before Fallout 3, New Vegas or 4. It's set just 20 (give or take) years after the war ended, so...what does this mean for the wasteland that we all know. I'll be posting a series of discussions (because I don't know the answers) over the next few days, but to start off, what will Ghouls be like?

    As far as I know, Ghouls are either 'Feral' or...not, and Ghouls are, as far as I know, those who managed to survive the bombs and continue living. But did they start off feral and then become sane over time (meaning we'll primarily face Feral Ghouls and never meet a sane one) or is it the opposite? Did Ghouls start out sane and only be driven mad after dozens of years? How will humans react so seeing Ghouls for the first time? 

    There are so many interesting questions, I could spend an hour listing them all, but...what are your thoughts on the Ghouls of Fallout 76?

    Fallout 76 Discussion Archive


    This post was edited by SpookyBorn2021 at June 12, 2018 1:46 AM EDT
    • 67 posts
    June 8, 2018 8:30 PM EDT

    There will definantly be Gouls in 76. I think remeber talking to a goul in fo3 who said that it took months to a year or so before they started turning. Some went feral right out of the gate and other kept thier sanity. I think it has somthing to do with the level of gamma radiation they were expose to that determined whether or not they went feral or how long it took for them to go feral. Theres another convo you can have with an npc in FO4 who explains the reason why theres no ghouls in dimond city is because they can go feral at any time, kind of like a ticking time bomb. So the mayor has the no ghoul rule.

    • 1467 posts
    June 8, 2018 8:53 PM EDT
    There will definantly be Gouls in 76. I think remeber talking to a goul in fo3 who said that it took months to a year or so before they started turning. Some went feral right out of the gate and other kept thier sanity. I think it has somthing to do with the level of gamma radiation they were expose to that determined whether or not they went feral or how long it took for them to go feral. Theres another convo you can have with an npc in FO4 who explains the reason why theres no ghouls in dimond city is because they can go feral at any time, kind of like a ticking time bomb. So the mayor has the no ghoul rule.

    Heh, well other than remembering that Bethesda can always retcon stuff (they're good at that with Fallout) that bit about it possibly taking a year to turn feral is interesting. I wonder if they'd be stronger as well? Not entirely sure but the radiation would likely be stronger earlier on so we might be fighting stronger ghouls just because of that. Could be interesting, maybe more Glowing Ones?

    But that but about ghouls going feral at anytime...hmm, not sure if I believe that to be honest. Feels like the sorta thing that would be said in another game just because the NPC hated ghouls, or the mayor does. I don't really remember any cases of ghouls turning feral out of nowhere, but I haven't played 3 or NV for awhile so...could be wrong there. 

     
    • 67 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:17 PM EDT

    Yea that's always a possibility, they have retconned a few things before. The ghoul from FO3 was called karen or carol or somthing like that. And that is a good point about that npc from fallout 4. Just because someone says somthing doesn't mean it's true, they could just prejudiced or fear mongering.

    But I would imagine there would be some pretty nasty ghouls around that soon after the great war. probably a larger number as well. I mean they can't procreate I don't think. *Shudders* I don't even want to think about that lol. Just imagine going to a densely populated city and seeing a hoard of feral radiation zombies, I mean ghouls lol. I get the feeling that I'll be ussing a shotgun a lot in area's that were densely populated before the war lol. I mean everyone knows that a shotgun is the best insurance against zombies right?

    • 1441 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:31 PM EDT
    I'd say proto-Ghouls
    • 1467 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:45 PM EDT

    Yea that's always a possibility, they have retconned a few things before. The ghoul from FO3 was called karen or carol or somthing like that. And that is a good point about that npc from fallout 4. Just because someone says somthing doesn't mean it's true, they could just prejudiced or fear mongering.

    But I would imagine there would be some pretty nasty ghouls around that soon after the great war. probably a larger number as well. I mean they can't procreate I don't think. *Shudders* I don't even want to think about that lol. Just imagine going to a densely populated city and seeing a hoard of feral radiation zombies, I mean ghouls lol. I get the feeling that I'll be ussing a shotgun a lot in area's that were densely populated before the war lol. I mean everyone knows that a shotgun is the best insurance against zombies right?

    I've never been sure on how many Ghouls there are supposed to be. I mean, logically speaking most people aren't turning into ghouls (they're dying) but if even 10% of a city turned into Ghouls there'd possibly be hundreds of thousands. But yeah I think it'd be super dope if there were giant, 30+ ghoul hoards roaming around, or even just stumbling into...say a church (somewhere I'd expect dozens of people to actually be) that's completly full of ghouls and you have to fight of dozens.

    But yeah, Fallout 4's a tough thing for me, because it's so...different from even 3. In 3 you were kind of always aware that people had opinions on certain things, like you knew that people hated ghouls just because they were racist, or for various reasons (a ghoul killed my mother, so I shall kill all ghouls) but in Fallout 4 I never really saw that much character in random people. Plus everything was so synth focused you know? 

    • 1467 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:49 PM EDT

    I'd say proto-Ghouls

    Like...just older versions of ghouls? Stronger versions? Not sure what ya mean here Chris

    • 1441 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:51 PM EDT
    Yeah, basically the original Ghouls, people who aren't fully Guoulified
    • 1467 posts
    June 8, 2018 9:57 PM EDT

    Yeah, basically the original Ghouls, people who aren't fully Guoulified

    Right I think I get it. So essentially just not what we know of in the 'modern (200 year post-war) age' and are different in new ways? Could be intersting to see if there are differences. Do you think they'd be more feral or less?

    • 295 posts
    June 8, 2018 11:20 PM EDT

    Ghouls are like the one thing I'm not looking forward too, but at the same time, I am. It's like a roller coaster, I love riding them, but they scare me. Feral Ghouls scare the sheeeeets out of me. They make gross noises and they run fast. Super Duper Mart when they start crawling in from the windows? Total Heebee jeebees. If they're scary like that? Oh yes, please. 

    • 67 posts
    June 8, 2018 11:28 PM EDT

    I hope they make the ghouls look scarier this time. In FO3 they looked way more scary. In FO4 they kinda just look like shriveled up walking potatoes, that make really scary noises. The Glowing ones looked cool though, but the rest of em were just meh.

    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 12:12 AM EDT

    Ghouls are like the one thing I'm not looking forward too, but at the same time, I am. It's like a roller coaster, I love riding them, but they scare me. Feral Ghouls scare the sheeeeets out of me. They make gross noises and they run fast. Super Duper Mart when they start crawling in from the windows? Total Heebee jeebees. If they're scary like that? Oh yes, please.

    The Super Duper Mart was always one of my least favouite, but also kinda favourite areas in FO4. Actually I kind of liked all of the Covington now that I think about it. But also hated it, from Mister Boom to the difficulty of the area (if you go there straight from Concord) and the whole area was just so full of Ghouls and if you fuck up they all come at you...super fun.

    But yeah, dunno what it is but Ghouls have always been a bit more scary than zombies. Maybe it's the thought that they're a bit more human? Not sure, but yeah honestly I wouldn't be too fussed if they weren't a big focus, but I guess maybe it's Ghoul time? I mean if we look at the games, you've got 1 and 2 dealing with Super Mutants, 3 and NV deal with Human Enemies more than anything else and then FO4 is obviously Synth-Town...so maybe the whole game will be based around Ghouls? Maybe an attempt at curing them, I mean that would be exactly the sort of thing someone would do early on but give up by 200 AGW (After Great War, coining it officially :P).

     

    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 12:34 AM EDT

    I hope they make the ghouls look scarier this time. In FO3 they looked way more scary. In FO4 they kinda just look like shriveled up walking potatoes, that make really scary noises. The Glowing ones looked cool though, but the rest of em were just meh.

    Heh, to be honest nothing in F3 scared me because they were actually potatos. Stupid Oblivion engine. But yeah, I mean I guess they do have to keep it sorta tame so they don't get the R rating, but then again...Super Mutants have literal bags of flesh hanging all over the place so I guess Ghouls could super easily be much more terrifying.

    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 12:54 AM EDT

    I think I've got a bit of a personal wishlist here about how I'd like to see Ghouls handled.

    1. The story should be focused around curing Ghouls. I know it's kinda similar to some of the SM cure stuff they were doing, but let's be real. As soon as someone realizes that not all Ghouls are feral, there's going to be an attempt to start curing them and I'd really like to see that play a major part of the game. I don't know how, but I think it'd be the perfect chance to get a 'nice' Institute started off. Because from what I gather, the Institute wasn't always 'mostly evil dickheads' so I could really see their origin being a major part of F76 (and btw, I'm going to start a full Faction Post soon so we can get into that stuff later).
    2. I want Feral Ghouls to be less common (maybe a 70/30 split in favour of sane ghouls) but insanely powerful. I think the 200 years should've driven more Ghouls feral so having a larger population of the sane ones could be really interesting. It would allow for some really creative storylines and quests IMO. So actually what i mean here is that the ratio of Ghouls is more aligned to the sane ones rather than the feral. There are still waaaaaaaay more Ghouls then there were in F3/4/NV just because less have died off.
    3. More powerful Ghouls. Simple, I want them to be tougher, stronger, faster, more radiated so they're like Glowing Ones and give off radiation (slow rate for normal Ghouls but if your not careful a 'Glowing One' can kill you in about 15 seconds just by being near you). 
    4. More types of Ghouls. Maybe have them effected in different ways. You know, Ghouls that mutate more but are still humanoid. I get why they wouldn't be a thing later on, but we know that mutation has done some crazy things in the past so I'd like to see, I dunno, Hulking Ghouls, Flying Ghouls (yeah...uh mostly no but still kinda yeah?), ones that spit radiation, ones that are completly immune to normal weapons (so you have to kill them with explosives/laser weapons) and just weird stuff.
    5. Ghoul Hoards.
    6. Better Ghoul Characters.

    Probably more to it, but that's the list right now. 

  • Mr.
    • 763 posts
    June 9, 2018 1:28 AM EDT

    But did they start off feral and then become sane over time (meaning we'll primarily face Feral Ghouls and never meet a sane one) or is it the opposite? Did Ghouls start out sane and only be driven mad after dozens of years? How will humans react so seeing Ghouls for the first time?

    If you go Feral, you go Feral for life, I think. You can't start Feral and go back to sanity, but I think that you can turn into a normal ghoul and then go feral if exposed to too much radiation (although the quantity required to do so may vary from person to person).

    I'm interested on seeing how they will handle all of this"initial" shock with the Wasteland. Assuming Fallout 76 doesn't end up being Despacito 2: Dame Tu Fortnite Battle Royale.


    This post was edited by Mr. at June 9, 2018 1:28 AM EDT
    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 3:31 AM EDT

    If you go Feral, you go Feral for life, I think. You can't start Feral and go back to sanity, but I think that you can turn into a normal ghoul and then go feral if exposed to too much radiation (although the quantity required to do so may vary from person to person).

    That's pretty much what I thought, but I suppose there could be a few different scenarios that could work. I duno, obviously not a lore expert but I don't really see a reason why there couldn't be a sort of... experimentation process early on which is why some Ghouls aren't feral. Obviously that's a stretch and I'll assume your right. Plus that idea wouldn't explain Moira I guess... eh I dunno, lets just go with 'feral, stay feral' and that the ones that are 'normal'a re 

    I'm interested on seeing how they will handle all of this"initial" shock with the Wasteland. Assuming Fallout 76 doesn't end up being Despacito 2: Dame Tu Fortnite Battle Royale.

    Yeah, I think that was the thing that always bummed me out with 4, I think there was the perfect opportunity for that to be a big deal but it never felt like it was (I'd say 3 and NV as well, but in 3 they pretty much knew what they were getting into and no Vault-Start in NV so...). Yeah I think it'd be really interesting to deal with that as a core storyline/theme for the game.

    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 3:53 AM EDT

    So I've just been doing some reading and noticed some cool shit, just took this next bit from the Fallout Wiki, but it's pretty cool.

    Ghouls were not an immediate phenomenon; the process took months or years for some. After a few weeks, their skin slowly started to flake off and crack, as well as partial or complete hair loss. In Fallout 3Carol explains that even after the War it took a while for the ghouls to start looking like they do now. However, there have been occasions when ghouls are made instantly by large doses of radiation. For example, Camp Searchlight, where an entire base of NCR soldiers were transformed into feral ghouls (excepting Private Edwards) by a radioactive device used by Caesar's Legion, and the ghoulification of Moira Brown after the warhead in Megaton was detonated by the Lone Wanderer (if the player chose to do so).

    So, I like that first bit when paired with "Radiation levels in some areas were such that they were low enough not to kill people, but high enough not to leave them unscathed" so I could easily see the idea of there being less Ghouls, but people in a sort of...half-Ghoul process existing in 76. There's also a bit that I'm not sure on which basically says this.

    However, their intelligence has in some cases decreased at varying rates as a result of the radiation rotting their brains; this continues until their ability to reason has gone completely, and they become feral

    I could see two possibilites there, with there being less feral ghouls because they've had less time for the radiation to rot their brains, but it's interesting. Oh the other is that there just aren't any and we get to see the process of some Ghouls turning feral, and it being a brand new thing that nobody knows how to handle, even the non-feral ghouls. Definitely some interesting thoughts that this has spurred...turns out reading lore helps me learn :P

    • 773 posts
    June 9, 2018 9:10 AM EDT

    It would be kinda funny if you bumped into the Vault Tec Guy from Fallout 4, and he was just a bit ghoulified

    #easteregg

    • 1467 posts
    June 9, 2018 10:48 PM EDT

    It would be kinda funny if you bumped into the Vault Tec Guy from Fallout 4, and he was just a bit ghoulified

    #easteregg

    That would've actually been really cool to see him again in F4 at least. I mean, I don't think he showed up anywhere in the game. Alright #VaultTecGuyforF76

    • 67 posts
    June 10, 2018 1:21 AM EDT

    Dragonborn2021 said:

    It would be kinda funny if you bumped into the Vault Tec Guy from Fallout 4, and he was just a bit ghoulified

    #easteregg

    That would've actually been really cool to see him again in F4 at least. I mean, I don't think he showed up anywhere in the game. Alright #VaultTecGuyforF76

    You can bump into him when you rent a room at hotel rexford in GoodNeighbor. He complains about having to spend a hundred years with just codsworth for company in sanctuary hills, before he left for goodneighbor. you can actually persuade him to go back to sanctuary hills and set him up as a settler. he's my general merchant on one of my characters lol.

    • 1467 posts
    June 10, 2018 2:31 AM EDT

    You can bump into him when you rent a room at hotel rexford in GoodNeighbor. He complains about having to spend a hundred years with just codsworth for company in sanctuary hills, before he left for goodneighbor. you can actually persuade him to go back to sanctuary hills and set him up as a settler. he's my general merchant on one of my characters lol.

    Huh, the more you know I guess. Welp nevermind then :)

    • 1441 posts
    June 10, 2018 3:51 AM EDT
    So apparently The Master, the main antagonist of FO1, and the original BOS under the OG Maxson will appear
    • 1467 posts
    June 10, 2018 3:53 AM EDT

    Got a link for that? Just curious mostly but it sounds kinda dope (wouldn't mind it if the BOS didn't show up though, just for some originiality) 

    • 1441 posts
    June 10, 2018 3:54 AM EDT
    https://youtu.be/Ku4JQBwWzvs
    • 1441 posts
    June 10, 2018 3:54 AM EDT
    https://youtu.be/Ku4JQBwWzvs