If New Vegas 2 ever comes out, how would people feel if there were Lakelurks or a Tunnelers that wasn't completely savage attack-on-sight, and could even communicate? I for one would welcome the chance. I'd love to see an underwater world, say, in the Baja region. I think it's part of fallout we haven't seen much of yet. The ocean was under-utilized in fallout 5, and I think these humanoid creatures could be used to tell a story that didn't just involve shooting.

No more intelligent animals, please. Talking mole rats in F2 were bad enough, that talking spore plant crossed the line

With that said, I would love some underwater only content, shame it was cut from F4 at the last minute. You could tell they were planning on it being at least some part of the game, the only thing that remains in the base game is that useless aqua boy perk

Molerats talking is a little silly, because they're still, well, rodents. But tunnelers have an entirely mysterious origin. And they for some reason were smart enough to avoid the courier after a little while. I can picture them having a bit of a society that was perhaps destroyed by the divide disaster. And if we see Zetas again and have to just use them for target practice, I met get a little fed up.

@Sirdanest Please no. They're fodder enemies, just like trogs. Whenever people try to be clever with the wildlife, we end up with another ghoul in the fridge

I'm glad there were characters like Nick Valentine, and that not all synths were just deep-voiced kill-bots. The presence of talking, friendly synths in fallout 4 enriched the story, and I don't think anyone would say "No. Synths are better as fodder!"
The world and story was enriched by their having a story and dialogue attached to them beyond shooting them. That's the same way I look at the tunnelers, and the talking deathclaws. Might have done the same with lakelurks... they look so humanoid already, it's strange that they're incapable of intelligence at all. They all could have been so much more, so much more story from a perspective not connected to humanity.

Nobody was talking about synths. They have a reason to be talking and be intelligent

I have to agree with sonichu on this. Animals or animal like creatures really doesn't make sense to talk. I tend to steer clear of any goofy mods that add talking creatures. How ever I would not mind a homage to Planet of the Apes and see apes able to communicate if done properly like beyond boulderdome. It would make sense and be believable.

Did I miss something in the game that explained the tunneler's origins as something that absolutely had to paint them as mindless killers? I literally have no idea what they are, other than violent and not using equipment. Beyond that, they could be aliens, mutants, bizarre robots, hell, I have no idea. They could be the infant form of something... else, that we haven't seen yet. I don't know.
It seems that if they really do invade the Mojave in NV 2, it would hurt the story if they were just there to shoot. NV's best enemies tend to be more than that.

It sounds pretty ridiculous TBH famalam. Fallout is a post apocalyptic game, not a fantasy game. Sure the old games had talking deathclaws, but it needs to stop. Like said before, these creatures are meant to be fodder, and nothing more.

@Sirdanest Tunnelers are the mutated decedents of the pre war Hopesville people. Who hid in the caves and bunkers to hide from the nukes. Lets be real here and think a little...they probably aren't aliens are robots.

Ah, so I did miss the tunneler's origin. I thought they were completely mysterious, something to be discovered maybe in a sequel.
Honestly, this is a world full of aliens and searching for your stolen brain and all kinds of silly stuff. The idea that it's not meant to be silly is just not true. It's one of those things we can know for sure, that the fallout universe contains large doses of extreme silliness. It's meant, sometimes, to be silly.

Although I never thought that certain deathclaws being able to talk was even remotely silly, it seemed logical (well, from fallout's sense of logic) and lore-worthy. But i can see I'm quite alone in this, so nevermind.

yes, the tunnelers are just fodder. But I will always believe, always, that an enemy that is sometimes more than fodder is more interesting than one is who only fodder. The synths proved it, that their intelligence enriched their story.
Lonesome road would have been more interesting, had it's story contained new beings that had some story to them beyond shooting. I can't change my mind on that premise. So, I guess there's probably no more to say here.

@Sirdanest tunnelers are mutants, just like trogs. end of the story, the less you know about them, the better

The writers made the right choice I suppose, as people I suppose many didn't want any new intelligent species introduced to the fallout. But I'll say I'm more than a little surprised.

i dont know fam, again no one here could decide if its a good idea or not, it really all depends in the writing, the talking deathclaws were cool and interesting , so who knows?

@fermindal talking anything is stupid and nonsensical, especially aliens. It's not easy learning a language, any language, I am sure anyone who is bilingual here will agree. So the thought of an animal or another species, no matter how intelligent or advanced, speaking our language flawlessly, when even people have trouble with it, is just pure science fiction, and I hate it

Marvel comics, the old ones, are a real winner here. Galaxies far away, not only do they have humans, but they still speak perfect english, just like we do. How convenient, huh? There are hundreds of languages just on this planet alone, no chance of some other society somewhere else speaking exactly the same language, not even close, especially if they're from somewhere else

@stoobygacks @Sonichu_fanboy We actual don't know anything about the Tunnelers origin. We don't know if they are aliens, mutants, or an un-mutated pre-war species. Nothing is concrete. The most we have to go on them is they seem to have originated near Hopeville and they may have existed before the war(Ulysses says this).

I agree that they shouldn't be given speech or any of that, but I would like to know more about them. Them returning with a bit more information about them would be nice. Same with the Ghost People. Those guys are really interesting. They seem mindless and un-intelligent, but they make weapons/traps and seem to perform rituals of embalming captives and also seem to have a community so there is some intelligence there. Not saying to give them dialogues or anything, but more information would be nice.

I don't think there will be a "New Vegas 2" though. Typically, Fallout doesn't take place in the same location as another game so they can avoid things that may conflict. Like say your Courier sided with the Legion and ate Mr. House. It would cause conflict issues if years later we return as a new character and find the Legion lost and Mr. House lives. They tend to leave things like this ambiguous so everyone's playthrough is "canon" to them. This can easily be accomplished by not going back to the same area and trying to avoid focusing on those events. And to be honest, I really wouldn't want to go back. The map really isn't the greatest and we already explored what's there. You might as well just find some quest overhaul mod or something to make the game different if you want a "New Vegas 2". I'd rather it take place somewhere new that we haven't explored. Maybe somewhere cold. Most Fallout games are in dry and arid wastelands. While I love that, I'd like to see how Fallout deals with winter. The most we got was Jacobstown.

@Wertologist Ulysses says a lot of things. Word of god said that they were introduced because he wanted to bring fallout back to it's apocalyptic roots, so he added in a threat that would destroy what's left of the civilized world. To assume that they were people once is silly, it's clearly some sort of mutated animal, like the geckos, but some sort of humanoid abominations of sorts, like centuars, maybe something inbetween. We have mole rats, and we also have pig rats, safe to assume there are more mutations like those out there

I assumed they were aliens while I was playing. I was hoping they wouldnt all be equally hostile, or that there would be a story beyond shooting. But then I'd also thought the wanimingos were aliens (I don't remember why) back in the day, and apparently they're not.
Fallout is a silly place that isn't intending that it be entirely taken seriously. Science is ignored whenever they feel like telling a joke or for the purposes of whatever plot their telling. It's way beyond science fiction, probably closer to science fantasy. Psychic powers have been in, or at least hinted strongly, in every fallout game. It's amazing how people get so opposed to certain suggestions that aren't half as bizarre as the things that have actually happened in the games. As far as I'm concerned, once your brain has been kidnapped and you have to go find it, and possibly get into an argument with it, anything goes. A genetically-spliced talking land dragon is mundane compared to that.

Wasteland is much more up one's ally if they prefer something more down to earth -- not that wasteland is entirely serious either, but it's a little more grounded than fallout's very loose science fantasy-comedy.

@Sonichu_fanboy Well we don't know anything about them really and that's my point. Yes, Ulysses does say a lot of things, some of which isn't true, but we have no reason to think that what he said about the Tunnelers wasn't true. Not much is ever said about them so we only have a few things to go on and the most stable thing is that they may have existed before the war. They very well could have been mutated people, but there's not much evidence to this either, but then again, there isn't much evidence to your claim that they aren't. The bottom line is we do not know their origins or really what they even are so claiming they are X as if it's fact is just not true.

@Sirdanest Fallout can hand wave a lot of things with FEV, the magic gas that makes animals and insects huge and turns people and creatures into horrific monsters. Now ghouls, I am much less forthcoming about, especially how F3 and F4 handles them, there shouldn't be so many of them around, and they shouldn't be so easy to make

@Wertologist Ulysses is an insane man who wants to nuke the world for pretty much no reason at all. He says a lot of things, but most of them shouldn't be taken as anything more than rambling. Frankly, I think he's a gary stu of josh sawyer, he's the fallout equivalent of sonichu, just a mouthpiece of the author

@Sonichu_fanboy Which I don't like Ulysses either as I think he's overrated, but that's irrelevant. Yeah he's nuts, but we don't have any reason to doubt what he says about the Tunnelers as absolutely nothing else is said about them so making all these claims about what they are is unfounded. You stated your head-canon as fact despite there being no real evidence to support it.