As for how VATS works, my theory is that it would target an enemies biometrics or mechanical weak points and send an electric shock or something to have your nerves react and fire at the right spot.
same I figured it was like an aimbot that hijacks your arms for a brief moment to do precise shots. and that the ap recharge mechanic functions as a cool down to avoid damaging your nerves
For how the pip boy works? It’s probably mostly a inventory manager, player character marking when they add or remove an item, and the health stuff it probably detects blood flow or smthn As for vats, it probably tells you whether to adjust your aim to hit a part more accurately, similar to what we see in 76, it’s just easier to have it freeze for a player ingame in the other games Then also for rad detection, for mk VI 2000 onward it probably detects how screwed with the cells are by radiation, or it’s a Geiger counter and players have it used differently for gameplay, idk
You are consistently one of the greatest video game essay ceators in the field right now. I love to see how far you've come with editing, structure, creativity, and humor. Keep up the good work, man! And don't you dare stop making stuff you love!
My theory for how VATS works is that for the same reason the Pipboy can read your vital signs, it can read the vitals of those around you. So VATS essentially gives the player a little summary of which body part they can target that, according to the Pipboys onboard targetting system, is most likely to be hit at the given distance of the target and how much damage it should cause. As for the time freezing, I think its just a game mechanic to look cool, as the player character is already aware of what the Pipboy is telling them, the quick time event sort of functions as a way of showing that to the player in a cool way.
I've always perceived the Pip-Boy as not controlling nor assisting your aim, but instead using the special stats that were attributed to the individual pip-boy to calculate probability of the user hitting individual limbs or a given target. Its a probability calculator, plain and simple. It being on your shooting hand could explain how and why it would be calculating, maybe using data the dweller inputs regarding their firearm to take into account the caliber and model of the firearm; also maybe using a kind of distance scan to see how far the given target is. That's kind of why I perceive the "Assisted" part of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System to simply mean assisting you in the targeting of your given threat through showing you the likelihood of being capable of hitting the target.
It is crazy to think that nowadays we have machines tenfoldly more advance than pip boys in our pockets, and a lot of modern watchs does mesure you hearth beating rate, distance you travel, calories you have burned. It isn't far fetched to believe we can have a real life pip boy in the near future with all of its in game functionalities. (Besides vats, that is just way over)
The Pip-Boy is by far the most brilliant piece of diegetic menu design I've ever seen. It's about the only diegetic menu I've ever seen that people actively think could be in real life. Hell I hate diegetic menus and I still love this thing.
9:03 I like to think VATS uses a gyroscope system to adjust your aim automatically Kinda like those balancing cube robots Though I find the suspension of disbelief answer much more satisfying 😅
Funny enough it actually makes sense why in FO4 you have the plug and why your pipboy gets notified when vault tec personnel are needed(aka dlc and mods) your pipboy is straight off off the skeletal arm of a vault tec scientist Plus yes i think that its nuclear powered(they mastered safe nuclear power), the way it reads your biometrics is easy enough, its got some kind of reader or scanner built it. The Vats system could be explained as the device is triggering your adrenaline response hence allowing you to respond faster(i personally use the bullet time mod for FO4 and NV, it fits better in my idea)
I'd make a headcannon that V.A.T.S could be a small electric shock that's similar to Jet since It's similar and you can't use it all the time as it makes you react quick, and it's maybe transmitting weak points as a thought? Sounds hard to believe but it's a start
If you think about it, we basically do have pipboys in the modern age. Those fitness/utility watches that sync up to your phone are already capable of replicating many of the more realistic functions of a pipboy.
Yeah its pretty convenient and amazing that it gives you so much access to information, but uh it was made and distributed by vault tech... you aren't the only one getting all of this information
I feel like a lot of the little icons and perks being different between games can be explained by the users making those icons themselves and adding the notes about those perks and other things themselves too
You know, one could probably very easily smack a Steam-Deck-like device on their wrist and play FallOut on their makeshift Pipboy. Like, devices have become super powerful recently, this could totally be a thing.
When I saw this I was like: "itempedia?" And then I was like: "Hell yeah!" You should definitely do the PDA from Doom it made several changes from its many games.
The only way I can see V.A.T.S. working IRL is if it scans nearby lifeforms/robots/whatever and lets you view a screen of the selected target to identify weak points (like how you know what limb is close to being crippled)
I don't like the idea of the pip-boy magically slowing time and moving your character. I have a simpler idea: What the pip-boy does is calculate the probability of your character aiming at a certain part of the body, like what P.A.M. the assaultron does with its predictions, and we can't forget that the V.A.T.S. accuracy is bound to your special (perception) stats (and certain perks), the distance, and if something is blocking your line of vision. So basically, the Pip-boy is telling you, "Hey dude, if you aim at THAT enemy, at THAT body part, at THIS distance, with THIS gun, and YOUR habilities...you have a XX chance to hit it," and our character executes the action (like turning on the automatic combat). And the slowing time? Well, that's just gameplay wise for us players, who have the time to choose, but you can see it as a regular slow motion over how fast things are happening so we don't miss anything.
This is so genius! I love it!! Cannnot wait to see what else this brings!! A few suggestion ideas: Energy Sword The guns the clones are issued Apple of Eden Blades of Chaos
I just had an idea for how th pip boy should be in a new fallout game. what if like the lordvessel in dark souls 1 you had to Earn the pip-boy by doing something challenging. Like completing a complex and difficult questline or beating a hard enemy.
Those are just rumors and there's no way to prove them, since the fate of Mr. House is unknown. But you were asked by the Securitrons in a non-lethal way to cease and desist, but the rumors persist. Please turn yourself in and report all future plans for further violence against Robco Industries immediately and if you feel what the Liberacé Securitron did was a little bit uncalled for, rough, and beyond extremely embarrassing, feel free to submit an urgent leniency request form to your Overseer while you are still qualified in the next 5 minutes. Remember, the guidelines stated on that urgent leniency request form submission clearly state that to officially process the urgent leniency request submission form, you will also have to submit a full report with full color picture album inserts along with the nominal fee of 1000 caps and the second urgent leniency request form no more than FIVE MINUTES AFTER the first urgent leniency request form submission. If you fail, you must start the process over. Thank You for choosing Robco!
In the fallout 3 operation Anchorage DLC, There is some implication that it might have been or becoming a military asset as well, The brotherhood need a functioning pip boy in order to operate the operation anchorage simulator, And in fact, abducted and killed a Gary clone in their attempt to get one.
My theory for how the Pip-Boy works is rather simple: It's a clunky version of today's common smartwatch, with a few added bells & whistles. We all know that the Fallout universe is leaps & bounds more technologically advanced than our own, that goes without saying. So who's to say that RobCo didn't invent a souped-up vitals detector for the Pip-Boy? They certainly have the means to do it. What I have a hard time believing is that within that little box is a vacuum-tube computer. Vacuum tubes get incredibly hot; That's partly why computers back in the 50's took up so much space. Not only because vacuum tubes were so large, but they were basically just fancy incandescent lightbulbs, which needed a lot of cooling to function properly. I bet you could cook an egg on a Pip-Boy, if it actually existed.
I could see them advancing vacuum tubes to be much smaller and cooler out of necessity in the way we've made transistors smaller and cooler. Maybe what used to be the size of a regular bulb became the size of an LED. It's still probably very hot and heavy though.
A smart watch can't detect your health and body parts. Only heart beats or whatever training app. It also can't detect what you have in your backpack or whatever you're carrying. Neither can your SPECIAL in a manner of speaking. They're entirely different things, not just some clunkier smartwatch.
Somebody posted the theory about the vaults were provided the newest pip-boy models depending of the time each vault was build. The presence of pip-boy 3000 models represent the latest vaults that were built and the pip-boy 2000 for the earliest vaults.
As for the Biometrics. Fallout 3 DLC Operation Anchorage makes a very vague suggestion that, at least on the 3000 model, the pipboy is fully locked into the user, possibly suggesting some form of hypodermic needle constantly in the users arm
@@oneblacksun canonicity of what? FNV and FO3 and all of their DLCs are canon. If you mean how Doc Mitchell took his off to Give to the player, he's a Doctor. A Doctor in a Vault would know how to remove the Pipboy.
@TheNinjaSandwichOG And the Brotherhood of Steel can't do the same? It being biometrically locked to the user is such a half-baked idea that goes nowhere. Imagine how filthy the area around the Pip-Boy gets if it's permanently stuck to your arm.
@@oneblacksun it's implied the USER or other VAULT TEC personnel can remove them.eanimg theirs probably some override code or something similar that is only known by the user and authorised personnel, after conversing with Doc Mitchell, you can learn he was indeed the doctor for Vault 21 before it opened, then his wife died and he left the Vault. If anyone's gonna know the override code or whatever, it's him. You're not making the very easy leaps in logic that makes the Pipboy a viable piece of in universe technology, with quirks that make sense. Do you leave your phone or pc unlocked with no password? Probably not, because other people could go on it or steal it. Same principle with the Pipboy.
I agree and I think the different models are a good explanation of how some can be taken off easier and how vats in 4 doesnt freeze time just slow it or in 76 how it only targets stuff. Because they use a less invasive method to connect with the user so they do t have as strong a connection
I've always thought of it as like a PDA or a Blackberry but with the extra weight of early "cell phones". Some of it could be like the smart watch where it can read your pulse. I also like to imagine some location names get "renamed" by the player depending on where we are.
Here's a few ideas about how the pipboy could be working. As far as quest marking goes, i think the PC is doing that themselves. Essentially they're just word docs that your char makes as you progress, its just for gameplay reasons we don't actually see it in real time. It'd be too boring so we can just suspend disbelief and assume the PC is doing it manually, possibly helped by a recorder and/or a Text-to-Speech device. For vitals some things are easy to explain while others aren't. Rads is easy enough, the pipboy has a geiger counter. It could probably tell you with some certainty how irradiated you are passively and display that information in a simple to understand format. The info is generalized so a layperson could interpret it. The higher the counter is, the closer you are to death. Exact readings aren't necessary. I'd imagine with other built in sensors it could tell how healthy you were in general by tracking stuff like your heartbeat and blood oxygen levels. If you're heavily damaged, those readings would probably reflect that so it has a handy to read output that essentially amounts to, "You're dying, seek medical help." Now limb damage is a bit trickier, but I think I have a plausible explanation. A gyroscope. Suppose there's a built in gyroscope that is there to measure several things, but one thing it tracks is your gait. How you tend to move your body. Since the pipboy is worn on the left arm, it would over time develop a pattern that corresponds to your normal gait, how you walk and swing your arms, etc. This would establish a baseline reading that it keeps in its memory. Now, when your injured, your gait would change to compensate for the injury and the gyroscope would detect that. Finely tuned enough and it could probably even pinpoint which limb is the one thats damaged. Localized maps are fairly easy. It could be pinging your surrondings passively and creating a readout on the fly. It could then store that readout for you to reference later. While I dont think there are any GPS satellites that are still usable, if indeed there ever were, the pipboy certainly has a built in compass. That, coupled with the assumed pinging to create the map, plus the gyroscope I theorized about earlier, and I bet it could reasonably keep track of where you are in relation to the map. VATS is basically magic though. I could imagine that the pipboy might be able to identify targets using the aforementioned ping, but with some corresponding eyegear to display it for you in combat it doesn't make sense. I could imagine the pipboy could interface with power armor and display it on your helmets HUD, but the PC can use it all the time, so that isn't a good enough explanation. There's my 2 cents about the matter. Love your vids! Keep up the good work!
I always figured VATS worked off a combination of gyrometric data and some smart predictive code to give you an estimate/adjustment of where to aim. 1. It's worn on the left wrist, which the majority of right handed people will use to hold the barrel of a gun, giving the machine a good estimate of the barrel's position. 2. Use some smart code with this data to estimate the degree of the angle towards an average sized humanoid target 3. Display that data to the user as percentages, allowing them to adjust their aim accordingly. Obviously some glaring inconsistencies with this theory. But if you wanted to make a REAL working VATS system, perfectly feasible with current technology.
@@geebung026 I mean. Yeah. Some Advanced Warship AA in US, The CIWS system for short, use the AEGIS system. Which is a data link system to determine speed, bearing and size(By radar lock) and can fire on their relative position with ease. automatically. And manually if the user wanted . But the implications of such system on such a small device is video game magic but.. Its a game right it doesnt need to be realistic
As with many others, as well as with many other ITEMS, I kind of take the application of the Pip-Boy's INV and MAP functions as unspoken character input; I'm keeping track of where I'm going via advanced mapping data of the area and manual input, I'm keeping track of what I've kept nearby and on me in certain wide open spaces (INV) and so on, and so forth. Seeing the PIP-1.0 in the intro was very cool, but again, that boy was HUGE! I remember riffing on that when we first cracked the game open at the apartment, "Vault TEC scientists labor around the clock to develop the FUTURE in *arm-removal technolog!"* and my friend Apple didn't miss a beat, he was like, "Oh, that's how VATS got started~!" Good times, and good times here on Ghostcharm and the Itempedia, I look forward to this with great anticipation to the next piece of work in your inventory. If I had to say there was a broadform content deep dive to make I'd PREFER, even though it's likely already been requested, Samus Aran's Chozo Power Suit, from the Metroid series. It's extremely durable, mysterious, possibly ancient tech, but also adaptable, modular, and host to a variety of offensive and defensive capabilities, onboard CPU systems, energy motivators and storage units, as well as being a HEV suit of sorts, keeping its occupant alive, and closely monitored of its outside influence. Thanks for the tops work as usual, by the way! ✨🪙
When you look at the PIP-boy in context with the rest of Fallout's technology, how it works is actually pretty obvious. The PIP-boy has a biometric link to the user: it links directly into the nerves and scans the body directly. This allows it to detect specific damage to the body. It can also control the user's body in short bursts, dependent upon the fitness of the user's body (high agility = better VATS), and even project UI elements directly into the user's vision. The PIP-boy also has a built-in millimeter radar that continually scans the area. Said radar can also directly scan enemies for biometric and targeting data: eg, shooting a mutated ant's antennae.
So, I actually have an idea for how vats work. Instead of slowing down time, what is seen in Fallout 76 seems to be more likely, everything moving in real time, while your accuracy depends on your stats and range. As for how it can suddenly make you an aim God, I have an idea, and it sounds a bit absurd. You know how modern tech like phones vibrate when you get a notification or get a call? Well, I believe that the Pip-boy vibrates or beeps or something when you are in vats. When your aim gets closer to the specified target, it vibrates more, and when it gets further, it vibrates less, allowing the wearer to more or less predict with some bit of accuracy where to shoot.
I think it like a lot of objects probably functions wildly differently in universe from what we see. most games and even movies have to play up certain aspects of objects or devices that could be far different in lore just for the story/game to be more exciting or unique
Hey, if items are being covered now I feel like there should be some coverage of the Rebellion or Yamato swords from DMC, Mjolnir armor from Halo, and maybe even the Super Shotgun from Doom.
If you want an explanation for how so many cool things are crammed in the Pip-Boy, you can totally headcanon that they had a *pinch* of alien tech added during development, which is a thing in Fallout.
Eh it's not hard to believe it's just a brain computer interface and a portable computer rolled into one they are being developed irl rn all it has to do is send brain data and recieve data from it.
I always imagined that VATS works though the pip boy injecting adrenaline into the player making it feel like time is slowing down for only the player and not reality as a whole. The percentages and targeting is just visualizing a real time thought process
This is my headcanon for how Pip-Boy works: The inventory and quest menues are just the player character’s journal. They create a list of what they have on them and what they need to do. The vitals are linked to your pulse. The Pip-Boy is able to read your blood pressure and pulse in a similar way to the cuffs we can wrap around our arms in real life. I know this doesn’t fully explain it, but it’s the best I’ve got. VATS is a mode on the Pip-Boy that, once activated, acts similar to a scope. It is able to detect movement in front of it and create a real-time digital copy of the target. The noises we hear during VATS are actually just notifications from the Pip-Boy telling you when to shoot, based on where you are aiming. The slowing time thing is just a gameplay element and does not actually happen (to be fair, it doesn’t happen in 76, so there is precedent for that). Basically, it’s a real life aim assist. None of this is canon, but this is the only way I’ve been able to rationalize how it works in-universe.
This is actually something I have thought about a lot. The most believable, lore friendly explanation I can come up with to explain VATS is that it doesn't really affect the player character all that much. Considering we've seen characters more or less throw this thing on with no extra steps required, some sort of ocular implant or cerebral interface tomfoolery wouldn't make sense. Instead, I think it might be projecting that overlay onto targets physically. It can emit fairly bright light, after all. It highlights different bodyparts, helping the player character single them out and using all data available (distance to and size of target, the weapon used - which it would know since the player logged it as equippped, and the player character's vitals and entered history to calculate how likely said targeted limb is going to be hit under present conditions. It does nothing to actually improve those odds. It's called "Assisted Targeting", not "Assisted Firing", after all. As for the time stop/slow? It's honestly just a gameplay convenience, 76 showed as much, but if I had to bs together some sort of explanation, I'd say it does something to provoke a brief, extreme adrenal response. We've already seen chems do something similar, so it isn't that much of a stretch to assume the same prewar science nonsense that gave us stimpacks and the G.E.C.K. might have found a way to jolt a some nerve in the arm a certain way to get the body to release "Fight-for-your-life" amounts of adrenaline or otherwise cause an altered perception of time. I know this isn't quite right, since using it would DEFINITELY break stealth immediately for obvious reasons and the screen (assuming there's no other emitter of light, would at least need to be pointed in the right direction (which it rarely is). Add to that that this method would have extremely poor visibility and very limited range in broad daylight and the theory is full of holes already, but it beats sci-fi concepts like augmentations or BCI in my eyes.
If I could have a Pip Boy irl I'd chose the Fallout76 Vertion with the Fallout 4 version a close 2nd. Also fun fact about the 3 and NV models, is that there Biometrically sealed to the owners arm. Meaning unless the wielder wills it you ain't getting that thing off not even sawing the arm off will work as seen with Gary 23.
Considering the tv show will be coming out soon, I wonder if they will explain the mechanics of how the Pip-Boy works and how its functions work in a non-game sense. Will be interesting to see for sure! On my theory on how it works, it has to have some biometric link or sensor. Considering in Fallout 3 that Pip-Boy model had a life long biometric, it must have some serious tech to it, considering its given to you more or less when you're still a teenager. Being so integrated with the wearer, it can likely get some very accurate health readings for injuries and rads. How it seemingly logs every piece of junk you pick up...no idea unless the wearer is just imputing the data and the device does all the math to piece it together. But yah, its just a piece of impossible tech that is a perfect means for gameplay and story integration.
Very late to the party but I believe that how VATS would work is some sort of AI for the limb targeting which advanced AI already does in fallout and a mix of the Biometrics system somehow not only knowing where you are damaged but also access your optics to use as its own and then the processing chip aiding in accelerated thinking (time slow/pause) and then a CBI (Computer to Brain Interface) in order to show the user a holographic HUD of sorts and then the same CBI controls you thus allowing your body to target and function in VATS (which is also why VATS can be affected by "Stats")
We have watches that accurately measure heart beat, sleep patterns, and even sugar levels. I’m certain it’s possible to implement them into a pip boy especially since their technology was vastly superior to ours. However, I don’t know where the sensors would be since some of the pip boys literally have a leather cuff that goes over your arm. Would negate the sensors. Fruit for thought though.
V.A.T.S. Specifically here’s my theory: AP is a charge of energy sent from the Pip-Boy to your body and your mind giving you momentary “assisted targeting” probably seen most accurately in Fallout 4 and 76 where you don’t freeze time, but slow it. The Pip-Boy is giving you data at higher speeds and assisting Hand/Eye. The mind and unit can only do so much which is why AP runs out and recharges. A combination of Pip-Boy battery and mental endurance.
I always found it weird so many people think the Pipboy in the 2D games is a handheld despite the fact the manual calls it wristmounted Also Pip-Boy 2000 Mrk. VI is the best Pip-Boy model
you know what, no. also, yes, but no! while the pip-boy is mostly a game convention, like a good 90-95% of hud and hud-enablig tools, it also has full-on application. sure, it's a COMP, but it's also a (very poor) smarphone. most health sensors and indicators are even present in smartwatches (both stand-alone and companion pieces to smarphone ones), alto obviously not in a 0-100% scale, and we are gonna make an exception for the 'radiation absorbed' one, let's be real here. and even the less-immediate, like agility indicator can be extrapolated by muscle reaction test, which is a thing that has been researced on for a while, even if it's fa from being anything useful in real life. the spreadsheet I've always seen as manual update. doen't fit too wel with low intelicence character, but it is not stuff done for them, it's for the players it's the same problem with COMP in all of Atlus SMT games that use one, that's that is a piece of technology made explicitly with diegetic gameplay function, with either late '80s-early-'90s tech, military hardware in one case (tecnically2, but it's the same military hardware), or a smartphone/NintendoDS-that-works-as-smartphone in the more recent titles. the "interact with demons" programs, save&load and the HP/MP trackers exist only in the fiction, but the other function are there, and self explanatory when put next to a irl smarphone
I've never actually thought about how VATS would work in real life, but i would assume since the PipBoy knows about your travels and how adept you are with certain weapons, it gives you a "chance to connect" with the certain body parts of the enemy based on given variables (calibur, type of weapon, weather conditions, distance, enemy movement, ect). I like to think it doesn't take the shot or slow time, it just tells you the probability of your shot. I feel like it tracks, considering I've missed in game when the VATS says 99%. You still gotta take the shot.
In the Broken Steel DLC of Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer comes across a Ghoul selling dirty water and pretending that it's pure water. If you get a sample off of him, your character says something like "Pip-boy analysis of this water indicates that it is radioactive". The thing has a spectrometer or something insane in it as well. All this without the use of microchips since they were never invented in this world! Fallout was never really made to be believable, but it's just a really cool setting.
Hey Ghost, I doubt you’ll see this comment, but if you were looking to dive into a potential Villainpedia or Heropedia episode, I’d love to see how you’d format an observation of either Talion or Celebrimbor from the Middle Earth: Shadow of War/Mordor series. I think in the video-essay format that you tend to do for these videos, a Celebrimbor or Talion vid would bring a certain (ghost)charm to these characters. Thanks for the amazing content man, enjoy your day
I always interpreted it as a digital log. Your character just writes down what they have, and when you consume/equip an item, that's just your character removing or changing the designation of the item. As for how it knows, it's obviously got biometric scanners similar to turrets or robots and can tell when you're damaged or irradiated. And finally, VATS, I think is an extrapolation of the biometric scanner, allowing you to align your shot/strike with the Pipboy to ensure Max damage. The bleep when you select a target is the Pipboy reacting to your aiming. But also since it is a biometric scanner, it has a limited field, and that's why the percentages get lower the further away a target is.
Why do we always end up with a pip-boy? Why, simple, it's the anthropic principle! If we hadn't found a pip-boy, we wouldn't have lasted a day in the wasteland, and the game's story wouldn't be worth telling!
I would say the pip boys also responsible for your perks it " unlocks the full potential of your brain", also does it actually digitize your items but not their Mass so you can still be weighed down by them
This makes me wish I could play any of the fallout games (I am one with the misfortune of having access to none) so I could really experience all of these wonderful things myself. This video was awesome to watch though!
If I were a writer I'd have the Pip-Boy be based on a supernatural artifact found by the Dunwich Company in a dig sponsored by Rob-Co that had the capacity to do, well can tell what a Pip-Boy can tell give (at least to me) a really cool origin and explanation for the Pip-Boy.
I would love to see one of these on the omni-tool from Mass Effect. (if there even is something more to talk about outside the codex the game gives us.) That or a Villianpedia on Saren and or the Illusive Man, basically anything Mass Effect related. Amazing video btw.
The Pip-Boy always seemed like a weirdly magical object in the Fallout Universe. Like, I know it doesn't really hold everything in our inventory and that it just journals it, but it still feels whimsical.
