Northwest USA

[Nekel-Seyew]

Places Like Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver, etc. Not a lot of games have these areas, if at all.

[Coyote]

I actually wouldn't mind this, it would be nice to be able to go visit the redwoods and stuff in the 'other rainforest', but the Rangers themselves are based in southern Arizona, so the game world would have to be extremely big in order to fit the northwestern part of the country in. Not that that's a bad thing, of course.

[Ranger B]

Maybe the rangers could track down those bandits that stole the jeep ACE fixed for them and drive it NW, that could work but I like the idea of NW.

[Myrkrel]

I live in the pacific northwest (Oregon specifically) and think this is a great idea. It's a very diverse area with almost any kind of wilderness you can imagine (mountains, coastal areas, rainforest, and yes, even deserts) along with some major population centers (Portland, Seattle). Also the predominance of rain / overcast weather in this area would add to the dark atmosphere.

There would be plenty of survivalist communities holding out in the woods and mountains to interact with.

And in the ruins of Portland and Seattle would be the perfect opportunity to explore the idea of nature taking over man-made structures. (like in "Life After People")

[BatCountry]

I live in the Pacific Northwest and think it's a terrible idea... Seriously, this place is completely empty east of the Cascades. Eastern Oregon is empty, Eastern Washington is virtually empty. Barring the dust bowl, it's about the only place that can make the Mojave look populous. Northern California wouldn't be bad, Colorado would be better, but the Southwest has such a huge cultural cachet.

Also there are a ludicrous number of prime nuclear targets in the northwest which make it very likely uninhabitable. Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, Everett Naval Yards, the shipyards at Bremerton, quite a large number of (formerly) armed nuclear silos, the strait of Juan de Fuca (an ideal LZ for an invasion force as it's the largest enclosed harbor on this continent), the whole delta around Astoria/Portland, Hanford was a fully operational nuclear enrichment facility during the cold war, Grand Coulee dam is the largest powerplant in the country, the Tri-Cities are a prime shipping port for bringing food from inland to shipping lanes... I could keep going. There's reason to believe a few direct hits (with the ultra-large yield stuff the Russians were testing) on Mt. Rainier could cause an eruption which would totally destroy the area with mudslides, and a few dozen large-scale dirty bombs dropped among the cascades would virtually guarantee covering North America with fallout due to the wind patterns.

The frequent rains in the Seattle and Portland areas and the huge watershed area would virtually guarantee that the radiation from weapons which struck prime targets was there to stay for a very long time. At least in the desert it stands a chance of blowing over. Rising hot winds from the desert would cause a temperature inversion keeping much of the fallout from descending.

Even assuming the Northwest survived reasonably intact, the Olympic Rainforest would very quickly close back over most of the roads to the south of Olympia/Tacoma/Seattle, and the forests of the Cascade Mountains would grow very rapidly back. Plenty of food, plenty of radiation, plenty of dangerous predators, and pretty much no more than a few hundred feet of visibility.

Plus, from the perspective of writing, who outside the Pacific Northwest knows what any of the places I've just mentioned signify? Where's the recognition? Seattle's the place where Starbucks comes from, Redmond is where Microsoft comes from, and that's about it.... Even people in the Soviet Union during the peak of the cold war had heard of Las Vegas (although mostly as an example of an evil capitalist Babylon that was proof of the decadence and ultimate failure of capitalist idealogy.)

[Myrkrel]

Also there are a ludicrous number of prime nuclear targets in the northwest which make it very likely uninhabitable. Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, Everett Naval Yards, the shipyards at Bremerton, quite a large number of (formerly) armed nuclear silos, the strait of Juan de Fuca (an ideal LZ for an invasion force as it's the largest enclosed harbor on this continent), the whole delta around Astoria/Portland, Hanford was a fully operational nuclear enrichment facility during the cold war, Grand Coulee dam is the largest powerplant in the country, the Tri-Cities are a prime shipping port for bringing food from inland to shipping lanes... I could keep going. There's reason to believe a few direct hits (with the ultra-large yield stuff the Russians were testing) on Mt. Rainier could cause an eruption which would totally destroy the area with mudslides, and a few dozen large-scale dirty bombs dropped among the cascades would virtually guarantee covering North America with fallout due to the wind patterns.

The frequent rains in the Seattle and Portland areas and the huge watershed area would virtually guarantee that the radiation from weapons which struck prime targets was there to stay for a very long time. At least in the desert it stands a chance of blowing over. Rising hot winds from the desert would cause a temperature inversion keeping much of the fallout from descending.

Even assuming the Northwest survived reasonably intact, the Olympic Rainforest would very quickly close back over most of the roads to the south of Olympia/Tacoma/Seattle, and the forests of the Cascade Mountains would grow very rapidly back. Plenty of food, plenty of radiation, plenty of dangerous predators, and pretty much no more than a few hundred feet of visibility.

The funny thing is, everything you just described makes it sound even better to me. It sounds like an awesome environment for a fascinating, hostile wasteland with a great dark atmosphere. This just adds more to the adventure element in my opinion. The game world doesn't need to be comfortable to live in.

Maybe there would be particular items or people in that wasteland the Rangers needed to seek out. They could still be based somewhere else but I think at least having excursions into the Northwest would be great.

[BatCountry]

Also there are a ludicrous number of prime nuclear targets in the northwest which make it very likely uninhabitable. Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, Everett Naval Yards, the shipyards at Bremerton, quite a large number of (formerly) armed nuclear silos, the strait of Juan de Fuca (an ideal LZ for an invasion force as it's the largest enclosed harbor on this continent), the whole delta around Astoria/Portland, Hanford was a fully operational nuclear enrichment facility during the cold war, Grand Coulee dam is the largest powerplant in the country, the Tri-Cities are a prime shipping port for bringing food from inland to shipping lanes... I could keep going. There's reason to believe a few direct hits (with the ultra-large yield stuff the Russians were testing) on Mt. Rainier could cause an eruption which would totally destroy the area with mudslides, and a few dozen large-scale dirty bombs dropped among the cascades would virtually guarantee covering North America with fallout due to the wind patterns.

The frequent rains in the Seattle and Portland areas and the huge watershed area would virtually guarantee that the radiation from weapons which struck prime targets was there to stay for a very long time. At least in the desert it stands a chance of blowing over. Rising hot winds from the desert would cause a temperature inversion keeping much of the fallout from descending.

Even assuming the Northwest survived reasonably intact, the Olympic Rainforest would very quickly close back over most of the roads to the south of Olympia/Tacoma/Seattle, and the forests of the Cascade Mountains would grow very rapidly back. Plenty of food, plenty of radiation, plenty of dangerous predators, and pretty much no more than a few hundred feet of visibility.

The funny thing is, everything you just described makes it sound even better to me. It sounds like an awesome environment for a fascinating, hostile wasteland with a great dark atmosphere. This just adds more to the adventure element in my opinion. The game world doesn't need to be comfortable to live in.

Maybe there would be particular items or people in that wasteland the Rangers needed to seek out. They could still be based somewhere else but I think at least having excursions into the Northwest would be great.

Well, I guess if the game is about dying within a few seconds of stepping outside the door, that'd be a win.

[Krakrok]

I'm in favor of the Pacific Northwest. Maybe Seattle + Vancouver + Portland.

For other post apoc stuff set in the same location check out Dark Angel (TV series) and these three books by Donald E. Mcquinn -- Warrior, Wanderer, and Witch.

[Manicotti Lion]

I've been saying this for a long time. Let me use New Vegas as an example. It was a great game, but one big problem I had with it was that I couldn't even tell it was a post-apocalyptic setting when I was playing. Seriously, go to Google Maps and look up some of the sites like Goodsprings, Nipton, or Highway 164. Make sure to view them from street view. They look MORE like a burned out wasteland in reality than they ever did in the game. New Vegas actually did these places a favor by making them more vibrant and full of life. Normally this would be a great thing in a game, but when the point is that the world has been destroyed then it sort of backfires. If you want to see real destruction have the game set in Oregon/Washington where there are (now) a lot of forests, but in the game show the devastation and ruins. Show the charred tree stumps and barren hillsides that had all their vegetation blown away from the shockwaves of the bombs. Show the lakes with their shores surrounded by the rotting carcasses of animals that tried to drink there but died due to the radiated water. The contrast will be a lot more profound. We've had enough post-apoc games set in the desert and by now they're all looking the same.

[Bob]

Those charred stumps and rotting corpses by the lake will be long gone after 200 years. All you would be getting is a barren wasteland in a place that was once green instead of a barren wasteland in a place that was once a barren wasteland. Seems like a trivial difference.

[ravenshrike]

Those charred stumps and rotting corpses by the lake will be long gone after 200 years. All you would be getting is a barren wasteland in a place that was once green instead of a barren wasteland in a place that was once a barren wasteland. Seems like a trivial difference.

Over 100 years with no interference plenty of plant growth would have covered the area. Moreover, except places that got hit by ground effect nukes, which would really only have been places like bunkers or other really important sites the vast amount of radiation would be gone after a century.

[BJAltman]

We've also got the Dry Falls (greatest known waterfall to have existed), a petrified forest (kinda small really), Moses Lake (upon which they land jumbo jets in the winter), our own desert (they filmed Dune there), etc. etc. It you are looking for diversity of terrain types, the NW is very solid. Socially, things are also pretty diverse up here. There's a strong liberal presence in Portland and Seattle. Strong conservative presence once you spread out from there, particularly east of the Cascades. There's even been survivalist communities and religious communes in Idaho and Oregon (look up Rajneeshpuram, the timing of which is perfect for Temple of the Mushroom Cloud MkII).

Its easy to say that the NW would have been irradiated to nothing, but that goes with every part of the Wasteland world. It would not be far fetched to that that the SDI satellites actually did get some of the missiles, and those were all headed to the NW. The result is that where things are bad, hey, its Wasteland, its still a place you can eek out an existence.

On the whole, I'd love to see the game set in the NW US.

[Miroku]

NW could be interesting. It could start in/around Boise, and end up in Portland or Olympia.

http://i.imgur.com/LKRlu.png

The Rangers could have a outpost in Boise, and you would get plenty of wasteland like settings. But as you cross the Cascades you come across pockets of trees, and green.

Kind of imagining high desert desolation in the east, surviving forest near the coast, and major devastation of Portland. So you would get three acts if it where in terms of places. The wasteland we are familiar with in media, the uncommon land that time forgot, and the bombed out city.

Since this is open ended nothing is really stopping you from matching west. But I feel these three settings could tend itself to many different stories, enemy types, causes, and issues.

[OldSkoolKamikaze]

Let's do Wisconsin instead because I live there.