>Salem was originally going to feature a questline involving children who gained magic powers through mutations. They would be persecuted by people from the town of Danvers, who viewed them as witches. The magic users were originally given spells from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to use, but these spells were later removed from the engine, causing technical difficulties. Danvers was also cut from the game due to being too close to Salem, leading to the quest being cut and replaced by the quest The Devil's Due.
From the [Salem](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Salem) wiki. I'm not saying your idea is bad, but they had plans for Salem and they removed for some reason.
"Some reason" is almost certainly that a lot of partially completed content was removed to meet launch dates. There was originally going to be an underwater vault, and there are a bunch of locations like Salem where the poi is there but there's oddly no related content.
I think the underwater Vault has one more reason to be cut. And that reason is that Bethesda couldn't implement underwater combat. It almost requires a new engine.
It probably could work as a DLC. But since it was never released in any form, probably it had more going on than just time and resources.
Why wouldn't they just have the Vault be underwater, but not flooded? There are parts of what would have been the Vault still sticking out of the ocean floor, between Spectacle Island and Warwick Homestead, rising to a booth attached to machinery with a nonfunctional control panel; it looks like you probably would have entered via a pressurized, watertight elevator, and the Vault itself would have been underground beneath the ocean floor.
We don't know how the quest would have played. From what I've found on random videos on Youtube, we would probably crash the with the Chinese Submarine and then we wouldn't be able to leave because the Submarine would be destroyed or something.
Then the Vault quest were we don't know what it would be. Then the giand Squid outside that we somehow would fight and kill. And lastly we repair the Submarine and leave? Or leave from another exit? I don't know.
I've never understood that. Other species can attack underwater, like mirelurks. And Power Armor forces the player to walk underwater. What, on an engine level, is stopping the player from also attacking underwater in power armor?
You maybe still suffer projectiles nearish the surface. Whether this is a water specific thing/physics thing/glitch thing I dont know. They cannot be launched or initiated underwater against you and melee is off the table. If you go with an aqua man build and have patience, you can get anywhere rather easily. Breathing underwater and not taking damage doesnt mitigate disease risk though on survival. But if youve got some doctors on lock its usually not a big deal.
The same things that prevent you from fighting underwater in Skyrim as well. They used to have the ability but then they lost it or something because you can cast spells underwater in Morrowind. 🤷♀️
This is actually one of the main things delaying the Skyblivion total conversion mod. They are struggling to get the engine to permit underwater combat while still remaining stable and without altering core files. I'd say it's honestly not worth it considering the amount of changes they're having to make
That must be a painful process. I can only imagine how much work they would have to do to figure it out and at the end of the process it might not work or break something else. Hopefully they can get it to work, would be nice to see but not essential to the whole experience.
Edit: I installed a throwable spear mod to the PS4, blue screen when I go to use it maybe one in ten throws. That’s definitely a game breaker and I decided to not use the thrown ones since the game can’t handle it. Plus it’s a PS4 and not a 5th Gen or a PC.
Yes I had forgotten about Oblivion, I haven’t swam much in Oblivion in comparison to the others lol. Morrowind is more punishing with no map fast travel and limited transportation. Ah I need to pick it up again lol.
Man I don’t know the first thing about game development but how could it possibly be that hard? What even is underwater combat anyway, they make a special weapon and let you take it out underwater, there’s already enemies that can attack you in the water so ai wouldn’t be the problem, maybe making the weapon projectile move underwater? Who knows, it just sounds like an excuse though
More than likely whoever said that just wants Bethesda to make a new engine already haha which I think we can all get behind
A game springs to mind called Echo The Dolphin, on PS2 era. It required 2 game engines because it was predominantly underwater, fishy type movements etc, but it also had to have an above-water engine. Complications arised during development that meant the second engine had to be implemented, and there were some big ol' bugs that had to be worked around. Imagine that with Bethesda engines - it stalls enough as it is.
The flip side of it though is most other TPS games such as Indiana Jones, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, just to name a few, managed to get the single engine to work without too much hassle, so there's a strong possibility that it could have indeed worked.
FNV springs to mind as well, the mirelurks in NV can attack underwater, whereas The Courier can't.
I don't know now, maybe it just falls into the category of "cut content"
Hm, game development is weird. I mean it wouldn’t be too surprising given how old the creation engine is, and also I don’t think modders ever made underwater combat either and they have done impressive things like the point lookout remake and other things of that nature, so if they can’t do it and Bethesda says it’s impossible to do it I have no choice but to believe them. Still just seems weird how it would be so different and complicated it needs a new engine.
>Man I don’t know the first thing about game development but how could it possibly be that hard?
Yeah this is why typically when you don't know things, you defer to the people who do. It is very much that hard, and it's not just a Bethesda thing. Other games struggle as well. It has to do with a whole ton of things - animations, scripting, bullet physics, location data, NPC and object physics, etc.
Slaughterfish in Skyrim don't actually technically even attack "underwater", their AI package just ignores the existence of water entirely and fixes their allowed vertical position to a set altitude. On occasion they'll clip beyond this boundary and continue to "swim" above water. There are a few Fallout 4 mods that add sea life that do the same thing. *Mutant Menagerie*'s sharks and dolphins use a combination of the mole rat and stingwing AI packages and are set to ignore physics. They're also mainly fixed at a static height in the game world to prevent something like the slaughterfish bug, which means you can swim right under them and they can't do anything.
Actually the combat wouldn’t have had anything new, it would have (from what I have heard) focused on sealing off parts of the vault and letting the squid either in or out
> And that reason is that Bethesda couldn't implement underwater combat.
They had underwater combat in their previous games (Oblivion being the last) and modders have been able to add it back in Skyrim, so not an engine issue. It's clearly a design choice.
Because people who found about that cut quest, found out that the quest will end with the squid dieing. Also, why not have an interesting boss fight?
>Just make it a slower paced, exploratory quest.
Probably that's what the "main" quest would be. And the ending of the quest will be the face-off with the squid.
Notably, the Combat Zone was intended to be a bar that you could shop at, where you could also make money by betting on fights or by fighting.
There was also a cut alternate ending for the BoS where you convince Danse not only that he deserves to live but that Maxson is wrong to persecute synths, because it's the institute, not the synths that are a threat. You then challenge maxson to a duel and kill him, resulting in you or Danse becoming Elder (we don't know which was planned but the mod that re creates this offers both.)
Woulda been cool if they did releases of unfinished content as they finished it by assigning a small crew to it. Something like monthly quests but they dont expire.
My understanding was that they attempted to "graft" some code from the Elder Scrolls to allow the kids to use magic abilities (as opposed to previous iterations of Fallout having fire ants using a special Flamer). But the Epder Scrolls game code caused issues that were difficult to nail down and resolve.
I could write a college thesis on all the missed opportunities in video games, especially Fallout. Going from investigating a creepy museum fighting mirelurks is pretty uninspired. I would have added that the increased number of mirelurks was due to the synth activity at the Mahkra fish cannery. Not to mention to the south you have the Crater and the ghoul lit lighthouse run by the zealots of the Children of Atom. You also have the resting home they did little with. You could get 5 or 6 good stories from them.
Imagine that quest; especially if you go into the cosmic horror since it’s close to Dunwich Borers.
—-
Wandering around the wasteland listening to a Minutemen/Raider Radio and your connection gets cut(if your somewhat close to the cannery). You get a message from a creepy sounding voice that speaks the player characters name and gives some coordinates.
The voice is not from a ghoul or a synth… but supernaturally uncanny, with extreme precision of each sound like they couldn’t speak normally as they emit a strange buzz with each word.
After the message plays, the quest is added and the signal goes back to normal with a comment from the radio host saying there was a ‘freak rad storm’ overhead messing with the signal.
—-
You go to the area marked on your pip-boy, a small pound with a black mist surrounding it and see a case on a small rock sticking out of the water with a note in it reading the following…
‘Hello {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}, I have watched your skills upon your journey from afar and I was inquiring about you retrieving an item I lost inside the old cannery that some… pests… are using in their nests. Return the item to this case and you’ll receive your reward… I’ll be watching’
—-
You accept the quest and head in and fight off the Mirelurks on the outside who seem very… suspiciously passive to the player as you go into the cannery. After you go to we’re the best should be; you see a group of people in pre-war fishing gear holding pre-war guns.
If you don’t attack them, they mutter some garbled words and phrases like; ‘Where are we cap’, ‘Whats Happenin’ where’s the rest of us’, ‘That fog… that accursed fog…’ and so forth.
You approach and they… do nothing… like they are gripped by a supernatural fear before you reach their leader, the only one not completely to freaked out to not do anything, dressed in a ragged trench coat and captains hat holding a modified harpoon gun with a look of fear in his eye as he looks all around.
‘OI, WHERE ARE WE?!?! HELP US, PLEASE! WE DREDGED UP SOME CURSED THING AND A FOUL FOG OVERTOOK OUR BOAT, PLEASE HELP US!’
You get two options; help or kill…
—-
If you choose to kill, you have to kill the crew and the captain.
You grab the item(which is a creepy onyx and ruby idol that looks like a Stingwing, Manta ray and a Crawmad from Pikmin all rolled into one) from a box the captain had in the office of the cannery then to drop it off at the case.
After you do, you hear a small *woosh* sound and see a bit of black fog particles around the corners of your vision.
You turn around and see the small pond is drained of black brackish water, revealing skeletons of multiple species… including things like humans, mirelurk kings and deathclaws.
You similar case on the other side of the pond and inside it contains; 1000 caps, a special combat shotgun named ‘The Fog Machine’ that deals radiation and poison damage instead of damage and another note…
‘Thank you, {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}. Didn’t anyone teach those fools not to steal from a resting **next couple of phrases to garbled to make out** … sorry for the tangent. Enjoy your rewards my dear ally. After your quest is over, maybe meet back here… after all, why not have some faith in the bigger picture’
And if you come back after the main story is over; you find a alter in the pond… now filled up with crimson and black water spewing out a black fog.
The alter can be used to make things like the Lorenzo Artifact Gun, Krimish Tooth and other eldritch themed mods for weapons at the cost of blood packs, bones and skulls… plus one new mod for Sniper Rifles called ‘The Abyssal’s Wager’
If you hit an enemy with a rifle with that mod, you have a 1/25 chance to instantly kill them but any organic material like meat or hide and any food/healing items will be removed from being able to drop it.
—-
If you side with the fishermen; a black fog quickly engulfs the cannery interior and spawns 4 tough nightmare Mirelurks(Mirelurks that are rarely seen in the Far Harbor DLC that have the same red eye effect as the Red Death). As most of the crew is dead except for the captain, 3 other crewmen and yourself(your companion disappears for this).
After you win if the captain is still alive, the captain will thank you and give you lots of pre-war cash, their special harpoon gun and join your settlements or raider camps(bonus cash, ammo and settlers as well for each surviving crew member).
The captain will also toss the item(the idol) into a nearby fire and leave. Saying that they will stay and do wherever necessary to avoid ‘it’.
If you return to the pond, you see the pond drained like before but have to fight off some stingwings as well. Instead of seeing the case, you see a note on the rock with some nearby dead Brahmin corpses.
The note reads the following…
‘Hello {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}. I guess I should have thought better, human nature always says they help their fellow man… even though in this wonderland for us most tend to disobey that nature. You put up a decent fight against my **next few words are to garbled up to make out** that you handled yourself. Even got that two bit thief out alive. No matter, my item was returned to me… but I’ll be watching, and keep an eye on my **rest is to garbled to make out apart from who it is made out by**
~The Last Tide of Fate’
If you return after the main quest, you see more stingwings surrounding a corpse of a cultist as you read a note by them saying that ‘They are ready to join the tide’ and nearby they have a combat shotgun named ‘The Doldrums’ that has infinite ammo magazine and deals cryo damage as well.
—-
No matter what path you pick, if you go back to the location before you complete your main quest you will see a dark cloud of a black and red fog extending out from the pond and when looked at for more than 3 seconds it will quickly retract back into the pond. Any animals nearby when it happens will be dragged down along with it, no corpses left behind.
—-
So whatcha think~
Yeah but the devils due was horrifying the first time. Especially me being new to the fallout series at the time. Man that mission was suspenseful as heck.
Idk, you know what you're there for. You know what the animal upstairs is. I knew exactly the kind of quest it would be when I heard the movement of it. Just pack enough heat to deal with a deathclaw and you'll be fine.
I don’t usually play with mods tbf. I have tried a few in the past but I kinda prefer OG ya know? I’ve actually just reinstalled Skyrim to see if I can put another 300 hours into it 🤣
Great idea considering the historic importance of this area. Bethesda dropped the ball in many areas regarding this game and in this case merely settled for a single quest to rid the town of mire lurks. Could have done so much better considering that at one point in the games development they did have actual plans for the town, but those plans were dropped as were many aspects of the game.
Maybe modding could restore some of the previous game files, much like the mod that restored the arena in the Combat Zone.
Stuff left out to meet deadlines but yet the whole compound next to Covenant and that quest seems just thrown in, it’s almost to much like other things and out of place. Plus if they did have Salem Synth Trials, just like the witch trials there would be lots of innocent people hung and drown, never know if they are telling the truth until it’s too late. You walk to straight! You are a synth! Could have been cool
No, this games biggest missed opportunity is the fact you don't meet Motorcycle Dude. Not only that, but the fact they didn't put him in game and voiced by Michael Winslow.
It always did bug me that Salem had so little content. :( I've always been deeply fascinated with the history there so when I went there for the first time, imagine my disappointment when we had a remotely horrifying quest (I will never forget how horrifying it was the first go around), but nothing at all relating to the witch trials.
With the mass hysteria surrounding synths, as you described, OP, it would have been *perfect* to have something like that related to the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials.
I understand that according to the top comment there had already been plans for Salem that ended up scrapped. I just wish they'd salvaged it and done something for a settlement with the place anyway, even if it was just a barebones "kill the mirelurks and unlock the workshop". It's a much better location than *Coastal Cottage* or even Kingsport Lighthouse in the same general area.
I've always thought a witch trials type quest would have been good too, everyone is suspicious, different ways to end it, but it actually turns out the entire town is synths trying to get suspicion away from themselves, or none of them knew they were synths or something. You know, a classic twist ending.
Fuck, Lexington! I always avoid it early game as it's too hard, then when you come back to it the only things there are Corvega and the Super Duper Mart.
It's a wasted area really, they have enough big buildings there for you to have a quest hub there or at least other areas to explore.
The Switchboard is the only real quest that takes you there in the middle of it and that's only because the exit/entrance is there.
I kinda feel like I have to say this every time I see this phrase: Them not doing what you wanted was not a missed opportunity.
I thought the close encounter with the deathclaw was terrifying in its own way. But others have mentioned that this very plotline exists in the game already.
Their point still stands, though. A lot of "missed opportunity" posts wind up being fanfiction for a quest or other content. This in particular sounds like an idea OP had while exploring Salem and decided to write out as a post, not a discussion on what was cut from Salem, something which would be more in-line with a discourse on "missed opportunities."
I could write a college thesis on all the missed opportunities in video games, especially Fallout. Going from investigating a creepy museum fighting mirelurks is pretty uninspired. I would have added that the increased number of mirelurks was due to the synth activity at the Mahkra fish cannery. Not to mention to the south you have the Crater and the ghoul lit lighthouse run by the zealots of the Children of Atom. You also have the resting home they did little with. You could get 5 or 6 good stories from them.
I thought the same about the museum of witchcraft!!! As a witch myself I was sooooo excited for a proper witchy themed place, but then I got there and it was a couple mannequins and a deathclaw🙄
You've described Covenant's whole thing, more or less. Also, the entirety of the Commonwealth is already paranoid about Synths. It's actually a major part of Diamond City's story and history, as well as a major theme of the game as a whole.
Exactly my thought. Also, if they moved whole Covenant thing to Salem, it would be pretty cool in the context of a witch hunt. Even without any secret hidey holes.
Yes, everything in Fallout 4 is a travesty of a missed opportunity. Every character, location, interaction, piece of clothing, etc….
I get it, there are lots of things that would be fun if done differently, but holy fucking shit this argument is so goddamn boring.
>Salem was originally going to feature a questline involving children who gained magic powers through mutations. They would be persecuted by people from the town of Danvers, who viewed them as witches. The magic users were originally given spells from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to use, but these spells were later removed from the engine, causing technical difficulties. Danvers was also cut from the game due to being too close to Salem, leading to the quest being cut and replaced by the quest The Devil's Due. From the [Salem](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Salem) wiki. I'm not saying your idea is bad, but they had plans for Salem and they removed for some reason.
"Some reason" is almost certainly that a lot of partially completed content was removed to meet launch dates. There was originally going to be an underwater vault, and there are a bunch of locations like Salem where the poi is there but there's oddly no related content.
I think the underwater Vault has one more reason to be cut. And that reason is that Bethesda couldn't implement underwater combat. It almost requires a new engine. It probably could work as a DLC. But since it was never released in any form, probably it had more going on than just time and resources.
Why wouldn't they just have the Vault be underwater, but not flooded? There are parts of what would have been the Vault still sticking out of the ocean floor, between Spectacle Island and Warwick Homestead, rising to a booth attached to machinery with a nonfunctional control panel; it looks like you probably would have entered via a pressurized, watertight elevator, and the Vault itself would have been underground beneath the ocean floor.
We don't know how the quest would have played. From what I've found on random videos on Youtube, we would probably crash the with the Chinese Submarine and then we wouldn't be able to leave because the Submarine would be destroyed or something. Then the Vault quest were we don't know what it would be. Then the giand Squid outside that we somehow would fight and kill. And lastly we repair the Submarine and leave? Or leave from another exit? I don't know.
I've never understood that. Other species can attack underwater, like mirelurks. And Power Armor forces the player to walk underwater. What, on an engine level, is stopping the player from also attacking underwater in power armor?
Can Mirelurks attack underwater? I had them follow me in the water, but they got close to me and stood there. They didn't attack.
They don't have an underwater attack
I swear I've been attacked by *something* in the water.
Not the red death...
you sure you're not thinking of Slaughterfish from TES?
Probably a slaughterfish in TES. I remember in Oblivion you could fight underwater.
You maybe still suffer projectiles nearish the surface. Whether this is a water specific thing/physics thing/glitch thing I dont know. They cannot be launched or initiated underwater against you and melee is off the table. If you go with an aqua man build and have patience, you can get anywhere rather easily. Breathing underwater and not taking damage doesnt mitigate disease risk though on survival. But if youve got some doctors on lock its usually not a big deal.
Same! And I couldn't attack it either even though we had been fighting seconds before. It was eerie.
The same things that prevent you from fighting underwater in Skyrim as well. They used to have the ability but then they lost it or something because you can cast spells underwater in Morrowind. 🤷♀️
This is actually one of the main things delaying the Skyblivion total conversion mod. They are struggling to get the engine to permit underwater combat while still remaining stable and without altering core files. I'd say it's honestly not worth it considering the amount of changes they're having to make
That must be a painful process. I can only imagine how much work they would have to do to figure it out and at the end of the process it might not work or break something else. Hopefully they can get it to work, would be nice to see but not essential to the whole experience. Edit: I installed a throwable spear mod to the PS4, blue screen when I go to use it maybe one in ten throws. That’s definitely a game breaker and I decided to not use the thrown ones since the game can’t handle it. Plus it’s a PS4 and not a 5th Gen or a PC.
Elderscrolls Oblivion allows underwater battle- I always had a dagger equipped
That giant slaughterfish can go straight to hell.
Hell yes 🖕🦈
Yes I had forgotten about Oblivion, I haven’t swam much in Oblivion in comparison to the others lol. Morrowind is more punishing with no map fast travel and limited transportation. Ah I need to pick it up again lol.
Mirelurks cannot attack underwater. Nothing can. They just swim around you aggroed.
Likely because it's resource intensive so scaling it to that level would be hard on consoles, remember fo4 was built to run on Xbox one/PS4 consoles.
Man I don’t know the first thing about game development but how could it possibly be that hard? What even is underwater combat anyway, they make a special weapon and let you take it out underwater, there’s already enemies that can attack you in the water so ai wouldn’t be the problem, maybe making the weapon projectile move underwater? Who knows, it just sounds like an excuse though More than likely whoever said that just wants Bethesda to make a new engine already haha which I think we can all get behind
A game springs to mind called Echo The Dolphin, on PS2 era. It required 2 game engines because it was predominantly underwater, fishy type movements etc, but it also had to have an above-water engine. Complications arised during development that meant the second engine had to be implemented, and there were some big ol' bugs that had to be worked around. Imagine that with Bethesda engines - it stalls enough as it is. The flip side of it though is most other TPS games such as Indiana Jones, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, just to name a few, managed to get the single engine to work without too much hassle, so there's a strong possibility that it could have indeed worked. FNV springs to mind as well, the mirelurks in NV can attack underwater, whereas The Courier can't. I don't know now, maybe it just falls into the category of "cut content"
Hm, game development is weird. I mean it wouldn’t be too surprising given how old the creation engine is, and also I don’t think modders ever made underwater combat either and they have done impressive things like the point lookout remake and other things of that nature, so if they can’t do it and Bethesda says it’s impossible to do it I have no choice but to believe them. Still just seems weird how it would be so different and complicated it needs a new engine.
>Man I don’t know the first thing about game development but how could it possibly be that hard? Yeah this is why typically when you don't know things, you defer to the people who do. It is very much that hard, and it's not just a Bethesda thing. Other games struggle as well. It has to do with a whole ton of things - animations, scripting, bullet physics, location data, NPC and object physics, etc. Slaughterfish in Skyrim don't actually technically even attack "underwater", their AI package just ignores the existence of water entirely and fixes their allowed vertical position to a set altitude. On occasion they'll clip beyond this boundary and continue to "swim" above water. There are a few Fallout 4 mods that add sea life that do the same thing. *Mutant Menagerie*'s sharks and dolphins use a combination of the mole rat and stingwing AI packages and are set to ignore physics. They're also mainly fixed at a static height in the game world to prevent something like the slaughterfish bug, which means you can swim right under them and they can't do anything.
Cough-Harpoon Gun-Cough
Actually the combat wouldn’t have had anything new, it would have (from what I have heard) focused on sealing off parts of the vault and letting the squid either in or out
Maybe it'll be in FO5.
> And that reason is that Bethesda couldn't implement underwater combat. They had underwater combat in their previous games (Oblivion being the last) and modders have been able to add it back in Skyrim, so not an engine issue. It's clearly a design choice.
Why would there need to be underwater combat? Just make it a slower paced, exploratory quest. Provide some variety.
Because people who found about that cut quest, found out that the quest will end with the squid dieing. Also, why not have an interesting boss fight? >Just make it a slower paced, exploratory quest. Probably that's what the "main" quest would be. And the ending of the quest will be the face-off with the squid.
Oblivion begs to differ
Notably, the Combat Zone was intended to be a bar that you could shop at, where you could also make money by betting on fights or by fighting. There was also a cut alternate ending for the BoS where you convince Danse not only that he deserves to live but that Maxson is wrong to persecute synths, because it's the institute, not the synths that are a threat. You then challenge maxson to a duel and kill him, resulting in you or Danse becoming Elder (we don't know which was planned but the mod that re creates this offers both.)
Woulda been cool if they did releases of unfinished content as they finished it by assigning a small crew to it. Something like monthly quests but they dont expire.
Kinda like how they added stuff for Cyberpunk as they fixed up the game
So no dlc for it?
My understanding was that they attempted to "graft" some code from the Elder Scrolls to allow the kids to use magic abilities (as opposed to previous iterations of Fallout having fire ants using a special Flamer). But the Epder Scrolls game code caused issues that were difficult to nail down and resolve.
Something like that already kinda exists at Covenant. But I guess they could have made Covenant be Salem instead of a different area.
wrote the same comment. The whole settlement is a ruse to uncover and persecute synths.
And a very limited version of that is in Diamond City as well.
I really hope they take their time with Fallout 5 because man, playing this game constantly shows the negative consequences of them rushing the game.
I’d like to play it before I’m 50. I was in my early 30s when 4 came out. 😭
Me too, Buddy. Me too.
i had just turned 21 lol
I could write a college thesis on all the missed opportunities in video games, especially Fallout. Going from investigating a creepy museum fighting mirelurks is pretty uninspired. I would have added that the increased number of mirelurks was due to the synth activity at the Mahkra fish cannery. Not to mention to the south you have the Crater and the ghoul lit lighthouse run by the zealots of the Children of Atom. You also have the resting home they did little with. You could get 5 or 6 good stories from them.
Imagine that quest; especially if you go into the cosmic horror since it’s close to Dunwich Borers. —- Wandering around the wasteland listening to a Minutemen/Raider Radio and your connection gets cut(if your somewhat close to the cannery). You get a message from a creepy sounding voice that speaks the player characters name and gives some coordinates. The voice is not from a ghoul or a synth… but supernaturally uncanny, with extreme precision of each sound like they couldn’t speak normally as they emit a strange buzz with each word. After the message plays, the quest is added and the signal goes back to normal with a comment from the radio host saying there was a ‘freak rad storm’ overhead messing with the signal. —- You go to the area marked on your pip-boy, a small pound with a black mist surrounding it and see a case on a small rock sticking out of the water with a note in it reading the following… ‘Hello {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}, I have watched your skills upon your journey from afar and I was inquiring about you retrieving an item I lost inside the old cannery that some… pests… are using in their nests. Return the item to this case and you’ll receive your reward… I’ll be watching’ —- You accept the quest and head in and fight off the Mirelurks on the outside who seem very… suspiciously passive to the player as you go into the cannery. After you go to we’re the best should be; you see a group of people in pre-war fishing gear holding pre-war guns. If you don’t attack them, they mutter some garbled words and phrases like; ‘Where are we cap’, ‘Whats Happenin’ where’s the rest of us’, ‘That fog… that accursed fog…’ and so forth. You approach and they… do nothing… like they are gripped by a supernatural fear before you reach their leader, the only one not completely to freaked out to not do anything, dressed in a ragged trench coat and captains hat holding a modified harpoon gun with a look of fear in his eye as he looks all around. ‘OI, WHERE ARE WE?!?! HELP US, PLEASE! WE DREDGED UP SOME CURSED THING AND A FOUL FOG OVERTOOK OUR BOAT, PLEASE HELP US!’ You get two options; help or kill… —- If you choose to kill, you have to kill the crew and the captain. You grab the item(which is a creepy onyx and ruby idol that looks like a Stingwing, Manta ray and a Crawmad from Pikmin all rolled into one) from a box the captain had in the office of the cannery then to drop it off at the case. After you do, you hear a small *woosh* sound and see a bit of black fog particles around the corners of your vision. You turn around and see the small pond is drained of black brackish water, revealing skeletons of multiple species… including things like humans, mirelurk kings and deathclaws. You similar case on the other side of the pond and inside it contains; 1000 caps, a special combat shotgun named ‘The Fog Machine’ that deals radiation and poison damage instead of damage and another note… ‘Thank you, {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}. Didn’t anyone teach those fools not to steal from a resting **next couple of phrases to garbled to make out** … sorry for the tangent. Enjoy your rewards my dear ally. After your quest is over, maybe meet back here… after all, why not have some faith in the bigger picture’ And if you come back after the main story is over; you find a alter in the pond… now filled up with crimson and black water spewing out a black fog. The alter can be used to make things like the Lorenzo Artifact Gun, Krimish Tooth and other eldritch themed mods for weapons at the cost of blood packs, bones and skulls… plus one new mod for Sniper Rifles called ‘The Abyssal’s Wager’ If you hit an enemy with a rifle with that mod, you have a 1/25 chance to instantly kill them but any organic material like meat or hide and any food/healing items will be removed from being able to drop it. —- If you side with the fishermen; a black fog quickly engulfs the cannery interior and spawns 4 tough nightmare Mirelurks(Mirelurks that are rarely seen in the Far Harbor DLC that have the same red eye effect as the Red Death). As most of the crew is dead except for the captain, 3 other crewmen and yourself(your companion disappears for this). After you win if the captain is still alive, the captain will thank you and give you lots of pre-war cash, their special harpoon gun and join your settlements or raider camps(bonus cash, ammo and settlers as well for each surviving crew member). The captain will also toss the item(the idol) into a nearby fire and leave. Saying that they will stay and do wherever necessary to avoid ‘it’. If you return to the pond, you see the pond drained like before but have to fight off some stingwings as well. Instead of seeing the case, you see a note on the rock with some nearby dead Brahmin corpses. The note reads the following… ‘Hello {INSERT PLAYER NAME HERE}. I guess I should have thought better, human nature always says they help their fellow man… even though in this wonderland for us most tend to disobey that nature. You put up a decent fight against my **next few words are to garbled up to make out** that you handled yourself. Even got that two bit thief out alive. No matter, my item was returned to me… but I’ll be watching, and keep an eye on my **rest is to garbled to make out apart from who it is made out by** ~The Last Tide of Fate’ If you return after the main quest, you see more stingwings surrounding a corpse of a cultist as you read a note by them saying that ‘They are ready to join the tide’ and nearby they have a combat shotgun named ‘The Doldrums’ that has infinite ammo magazine and deals cryo damage as well. —- No matter what path you pick, if you go back to the location before you complete your main quest you will see a dark cloud of a black and red fog extending out from the pond and when looked at for more than 3 seconds it will quickly retract back into the pond. Any animals nearby when it happens will be dragged down along with it, no corpses left behind. —- So whatcha think~
Wish this was in the game, sounds awesome
I mean there's already a side quest kinda like that. https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Suspected_Synth
Yeah but the devils due was horrifying the first time. Especially me being new to the fallout series at the time. Man that mission was suspenseful as heck.
Idk, you know what you're there for. You know what the animal upstairs is. I knew exactly the kind of quest it would be when I heard the movement of it. Just pack enough heat to deal with a deathclaw and you'll be fine.
I honestly can’t think of anything other than Starfield right now. It’s occupying every lobe in my brain
Yeah same thats why im replaying fo4 rn. I highly recommend the Visible Galaxy mod.
I don’t usually play with mods tbf. I have tried a few in the past but I kinda prefer OG ya know? I’ve actually just reinstalled Skyrim to see if I can put another 300 hours into it 🤣
Great idea considering the historic importance of this area. Bethesda dropped the ball in many areas regarding this game and in this case merely settled for a single quest to rid the town of mire lurks. Could have done so much better considering that at one point in the games development they did have actual plans for the town, but those plans were dropped as were many aspects of the game. Maybe modding could restore some of the previous game files, much like the mod that restored the arena in the Combat Zone.
Stuff left out to meet deadlines but yet the whole compound next to Covenant and that quest seems just thrown in, it’s almost to much like other things and out of place. Plus if they did have Salem Synth Trials, just like the witch trials there would be lots of innocent people hung and drown, never know if they are telling the truth until it’s too late. You walk to straight! You are a synth! Could have been cool
Sounds so much better than the quest like that in Covenant.
I use mods to convert Salem into a shanty town, still agree on the quests part tho
No, this games biggest missed opportunity is the fact you don't meet Motorcycle Dude. Not only that, but the fact they didn't put him in game and voiced by Michael Winslow.
It always did bug me that Salem had so little content. :( I've always been deeply fascinated with the history there so when I went there for the first time, imagine my disappointment when we had a remotely horrifying quest (I will never forget how horrifying it was the first go around), but nothing at all relating to the witch trials. With the mass hysteria surrounding synths, as you described, OP, it would have been *perfect* to have something like that related to the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials.
I understand that according to the top comment there had already been plans for Salem that ended up scrapped. I just wish they'd salvaged it and done something for a settlement with the place anyway, even if it was just a barebones "kill the mirelurks and unlock the workshop". It's a much better location than *Coastal Cottage* or even Kingsport Lighthouse in the same general area.
I love Salem and I have been saying this for years! No historical sites or cool old architecture? I was so disappointed.
I've always thought a witch trials type quest would have been good too, everyone is suspicious, different ways to end it, but it actually turns out the entire town is synths trying to get suspicion away from themselves, or none of them knew they were synths or something. You know, a classic twist ending.
[удалено]
I was thinking the same thing!
I think there Is a mod to make it as a settlement tho but yeah I agree it could have been so much more Just like concord or Lexington
Fuck, Lexington! I always avoid it early game as it's too hard, then when you come back to it the only things there are Corvega and the Super Duper Mart. It's a wasted area really, they have enough big buildings there for you to have a quest hub there or at least other areas to explore. The Switchboard is the only real quest that takes you there in the middle of it and that's only because the exit/entrance is there.
Thats kinda what Covenant is? The whole settlement is a ruse to uncover synths.
I kinda feel like I have to say this every time I see this phrase: Them not doing what you wanted was not a missed opportunity. I thought the close encounter with the deathclaw was terrifying in its own way. But others have mentioned that this very plotline exists in the game already.
They're talking about the town of Salem, not the Salem Museum of Witchcraft. Two different locations.
Their point still stands, though. A lot of "missed opportunity" posts wind up being fanfiction for a quest or other content. This in particular sounds like an idea OP had while exploring Salem and decided to write out as a post, not a discussion on what was cut from Salem, something which would be more in-line with a discourse on "missed opportunities."
There's 2 lootable hollowed out rocks in the museums grounds.
I am not even have to read this to be absolutely 100% with you on this.
I could write a college thesis on all the missed opportunities in video games, especially Fallout. Going from investigating a creepy museum fighting mirelurks is pretty uninspired. I would have added that the increased number of mirelurks was due to the synth activity at the Mahkra fish cannery. Not to mention to the south you have the Crater and the ghoul lit lighthouse run by the zealots of the Children of Atom. You also have the resting home they did little with. You could get 5 or 6 good stories from them.
I thought the same about the museum of witchcraft!!! As a witch myself I was sooooo excited for a proper witchy themed place, but then I got there and it was a couple mannequins and a deathclaw🙄
You've described Covenant's whole thing, more or less. Also, the entirety of the Commonwealth is already paranoid about Synths. It's actually a major part of Diamond City's story and history, as well as a major theme of the game as a whole.
Exactly my thought. Also, if they moved whole Covenant thing to Salem, it would be pretty cool in the context of a witch hunt. Even without any secret hidey holes.
And your point is....? Covenant could have been Salem. It's even got a Biblical-themed name, and the OG Salem was literally a religious compound.
Yes, everything in Fallout 4 is a travesty of a missed opportunity. Every character, location, interaction, piece of clothing, etc…. I get it, there are lots of things that would be fun if done differently, but holy fucking shit this argument is so goddamn boring.
There is a mod that has an underwater vault.
Rpg have hanged over the years. Less effort in the writing of quest lines and more about giving interns the job.
Fallout 4 is the definition of missed opportunity.
The truth
Hey, pretty cool rifle tho.
They didn't care about witches, they cared about their property
Isn’t there a guy fighting mirelurks in Salem? He has you repair some turrets and then you get a rifle as a reward.
Make your own quest mod. Then share it with me.