Re: [Fallout Equestria] Setting discussions

[cb5]

BY the way, if people here don't know about it, I think the following may interest them, at least by curiosity :

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Bible

I don't like the idea of a fallout bible, cause if there's a definite 100% way that events must unfold in the fallout universe then the creativity in coming up with new fallout games the like will be strangled and over time the fallout franchise will go the way of call of duty in that call of duty started out as a good franchise, but because they had a definitive way of story telling and as a result year after year no new advancements were made in the franchise or gameplay.  If the fallout franchise follows in the same steps then it will become the new call of duty in that it will still be a financially succesfull game, but will be garbage.

As good as the fallout series is you have to admit new vegas isn't as good as fallout 3 because in new vegas not much is added to the game and the story telling was mediocre in that it relied on far too many butterfly effect tropes instead of letting the character actively choose what ending they wanted.  It took me multiple tries with new vegas to get the perfect ending cause unlike fallout 3 the player wasn't always aware how their choices would effect the final ending.  Not to mention the mojave was fine before you started the game, it was fine afterwards. Your choices didn't have any long standing impact other than who actually controlled the mojave and that the ending didn't let players play afterwards to actually see the effect they had.

Not to mention that for the dlc when you can enter the divide and launch missiles it has no effect on the main story.  If someone were to launch that many nuclear missiles it would have a massive effect considering the targets were so close.  Even one of my playthroughs I nuked the ncr and still got the good ncr ending.  When you nuke a entire faction to dust and they still consider you their messiah hero that's bad story telling.

[Scienza]

BY the way, if people here don't know about it, I think the following may interest them, at least by curiosity :

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Bible

I don't like the idea of a fallout bible, cause if there's a definite 100% way that events must unfold in the fallout universe then the creativity in coming up with new fallout games the like will be strangled and over time the fallout franchise will go the way of call of duty in that call of duty started out as a good franchise, but because they had a definitive way of story telling and as a result year after year no new advancements were made in the franchise or gameplay.  If the fallout franchise follows in the same steps then it will become the new call of duty in that it will still be a financially succesfull game, but will be garbage.

You seem to have some issue with the idea of a unified canon. It doesn't (and hasn't) stifled writer's creativity, it just sets some basic constants so you don't end up with a disjointed mess.

As good as the fallout series is you have to admit new vegas isn't as good as fallout 3 because in new vegas not much is added to the game and the story telling was mediocre in that it relied on far too many butterfly effect tropes instead of letting the character actively choose what ending they wanted.  It took me multiple tries with new vegas to get the perfect ending cause unlike fallout 3 the player wasn't always aware how their choices would effect the final ending.  Not to mention the mojave was fine before you started the game, it was fine afterwards you choices didn't have any long standing impact other than who actually controlled the mojave and that the ending didn't let players play afterwards to actually see the effect they had.

I have disputed this statement over and over again throughout the internet, and I still will dispute it. New Vegas is a better game. It has better gameplay, smarter writing, a more open-ended and morally complex main quest, a more nuanced array of factions (rather than the virgin-protecting Brotherhood and the guys who killed your dad as in Fallout 3), more varied environments, a de-emphasized karma system (since it's always been ridiculously broken),  and it fits with previous Fallout games a whole lot better than 3 did. (Though, given how you've responded to the idea of canon before, this might be a minus in your book.)

Also, Old World Blues. Old World Blues is fucking amazing.

Not to mention that for the dlc when you can enter the divide and launch missiles it has no effect on the main story.  If someone were to launch that many nuclear missiles it would have a massive effect considering the targets were so close.  Even one of my playthroughs I nuked the ncr and still got the good ncr ending.  When you nuke a entire faction to dust and they still consider you their messiah hero that's bad story telling.

Firstly, in the Fallout universe, they use much lower-yield nuclear weapons. Secondly, the New California Republic is in California. Thirdly, yes, you do raise a good point about how nuking affects faction reputation, but it's no worse than any of the choices (or lack of them) you had in Fallout 3.

[Harmony Ltd.]

While all this talk is interesting, the link was provided solely to give people some inspirations while we are ping-ponging ideas here.

If you want to discuss the Fallout franchise in depth, you may want to take this to its own thread in the game sub-forum.

Not to be an ass, but given the sheer size of this thread, and to avoid making re-reading and trying to find a particular bit of information more of a pain in the ass than it already is, I really want to avoid it becoming cluttered with off-topic discussions more than strictly necessary.


I'm not saying "no off-topic ever", just that it'd be better if it was kept to a minimum.


Again, sorry if that makes me sound like a prick, but really, it's for the comfort of the people reading this thread, newcomers and participants alike.

[Scienza]

While all this talk is interesting, the link was provided solely to give people some inspirations while we are ping-ponging ideas here.

If you want to discuss the Fallout franchise in depth, you may want to take this to its own thread in the game sub-forum.

Not to be an ass, but given the sheer size of this thread, and to avoid making re-reading and trying to find a particular bit of information more of a pain in the ass than it already is, I really want to avoid it becoming cluttered with off-topic discussions more than strictly necessary.


I'm not saying "no off-topic ever", just that it'd be better if it was kept to a minimum.


Again, sorry if that makes me sound like a prick, but really, it's for the comfort of the people reading this thread, newcomers and participants alike.

Probably for the best.

To sum up my argument in a nice, concise, discussion-ending manner, canon = good, NV = good.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Given it is relevant to this thread, I'll answer on something:

"canon = good"

Yes, but to a point.

It is good to have a consistent base to build on, but there's moments where you have to accept not being 100% faifthul to canon.

Very concrete example : this whole thread takes on the premise of the 10 years epilogue of FoE as being "non-canon". Some bits and pieces from it are used for inspiration, but we don't feel tied into making everything here completely tied to that Epilogue, and freely chose to ignore some points that are contrary to our ideas.

Canon is important when it comes to ensuring some amount of self-consistency in a work, but it doesn't mean you have to become a slave to it.

The goal in the end, and it should always be, is to tell the best / most entertaining story you can.


FiM, FoE, PH are taken as basis for this thread, but we don't feel tied to making everything tie into the canon. Bit by bit we are making a setting of our own - a Fallout Equestria inspired one, and resting on close basis to the work that inspired it, but not 100% faithfully accurate to the original one.

At least that's how I view it. I know Hinds consider some parts of PH "non-canon" to this thread (at the very least some of the stuff about Zebra). Meleagridis I don't know.

And myself, like I said a few pages back and near the beginning of the thread : "Canon ? Who the cheese cares about that ?".

[Scienza]

Given it is relevant to this thread, I'll answer on something:

"canon = good"

Yes, but to a point.

It is good to have a consistent base to build on, but there's moments where you have to accept not being 100% faifthul to canon.

Very concrete example : this whole thread takes on the premise of the 10 years epilogue of FoE as being "non-canon". Some bits and pieces from it are used for inspiration, but we don't feel tied into making everything here completely tied to that Epilogue, and freely chose to ignore some points that are contrary to our ideas.

Canon is important when it comes to ensuring some amount of self-consistency in a work, but it doesn't mean you have to become a slave to it.

The goal in the end, and it should always be, is to tell the best / most entertaining story you can.


FiM, FoE, PH are taken as basis for this thread, but we don't feel tied to making everything tie into the canon. Bit by bit we are making a setting of our own - a Fallout Equestria inspired one, and resting on close basis to the work that inspired it, but not 100% faithfully accurate to the original one.

At least that's how I view it. I know Hinds consider some parts of PH "non-canon" to this thread (at the very least some of the stuff about Zebra). Meleagridis I don't know.

And myself, like I said a few pages back and near the beginning of the thread : "Canon ? Who the cheese cares about that ?".

I meant that in the sense that maintaining some semblance of a continuous, constant universe is preferable to fragmented chaos.

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

[cb5]

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

Pretty much, cause it's the equivalent of a gps then.

[O. Hinds]

Yeah, odds of it being ever mentioned anywhere in a story or during an RPG campaign are pretty slim, but it's an interesting background element to the setting, and, heh, it is cool.

I could imagine a Profectum ghoul rambling about the wartime space-program of the PR and recounting tales of the few times they actually launched zebra in space just in order to disable an Equestrian satellite, with a glint of pride in his eyes at seeing the dropped jaws of the people he's counting the story to, like "woah, they sure were crazy bastards, but hell if they got the job done".

Heh, yeah. That sounds like something that would happen in Profectum. And the "crazy bastards" part certainly makes sense here; I imagine that in the intersection of "able to do this" and "willing to do this" there were some eccentricities.

If you want to discuss the Fallout franchise in depth, you may want to take this to its own thread in the game sub-forum.

Oh, yeah, good point. Sorry. I've deleted most of my reply, but I would just like to say that I find this video good.

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

Hm, that might be related, yeah.

[O. Hinds]

Oh, yes, for the PR spaceplane, I was thinking something like this.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

If by mapping you mean "able to place you on the map", I'd say it can help (I wouldn't exclude it, but after 200 years odds are most of these satellites are inactive or malfunctioning), but my guess is that the primary mean of navigation by the time of FoE is the SPP towers ; them emitting beacon / navigational signals that the pipbucks can use to interpret its position. There's also most probably a form of inertial guidance that comes into play when you are indoor / out of range for the navigationnal signals to reach the pipbuck.

Now, if by mapping you mean "able to automatically draw a map of wherever you are"... That I thought was one of the spells contained in the spell matri(x)(ces), some kind of arcane radar, lidar, sonar, whatever-thingy that scans the surroundings and translate that into an automatically generated 3-dimensional map.

The pipbucks-knockoff that the NCR manufacture do feature that navigational system, as it's one of the main point of interest of the pipbucks in their eyes.



And before people get their hopes up :

NCR manufactured pipbucks are cheap knock off manufactured with crudely domestically produced talismans / spell matrices, of insufficient quality, sporting only a limited array of the pipbucks feature (SATS not being one of those features), and extremely prone to malfunctioning in the field.

Mainly, the features that have been kept are the mapping / navigational tool, the broadcasting equipment, and the environmental monitoring equipment. This is because the NCR-made pipbucks are destined to the NCR military, and more particularly to its commanding officers and NCOs.

The reason why SATS isn't one of the feature is because the NCR simply doesn't have the resources nor the competences to successfully replicate on a mass-production basis the complexity of manufacturing and magical-craft that goes behind that feature. The few prototypes and limited series pipbucks that do get this feature are even more unstable that the already infamously failure-prone vanilla NCR-pipbucks, with the actual use of the feature having non-negligible chances of damaging the pipbuck.



It's not that the NCR is bad at technology, it's simply that the tooling and quality of materials required to make decent talismans / spell matrices is really high : try making a microprocessor with 1920's tooling and inadequate raw materials, I dare you.

[Scienza]

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

If by mapping you mean "able to place you on the map", I'd say it can help, but my guess is that the primary mean of navigation by the time of FoE is the SPP towers ; them emitting beacon / navigational signals that the pipbucks can use to interpret its position. There's also most probably a form of inertial guidance that comes into play when you are indoor / out of range for the navigationnal signals to reach the pipbuck.

Now, if by mapping you mean "able to automatically draw a map of wherever you are"... That I thought was one of the spells contained in the spell matri(x)(ces), some kind of arcane radar, lidar, sonar, whatever-thingy that scans the surroundings and translate that into an automatically generated 3-dimensional map.

The pipbucks-knockoff that the NCR manufacture do feature that navigational system, as it's one of the main point of interest of the pipbucks in their eyes.

I mean in the general "here an off-hand reference to a settlement and it's location somehow appears on the map" mapping. The in-universe equivalent of objective markers, but it also includes that as well.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Heh. Maybe, but like I said above (I edited my post as you were writing your answer), after 200 years, odds are most of the satellites are either inactive or malfunctioning, so I wouldn't count on it too much.

The alternative being that as a shining example of Equestrian Overengineering, the things up there are still up and kicking (metaphorically) after all this time, and making literal magic happen by being able to not only continuously map the surface, but also somehow integrating in an unified information system with the pipbucks to be able to identify settlements and points of interests (satellites) and put names on those location tags (pipbucks).

[O. Hinds]

Of course, there's also the issue that, whether or not the satellites would have continued functioning, the majority of them were destroyed. Some survived, probably, but it still lengthens the shot.

[Harmony Ltd.]

On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked if it was the SPP towers doing the mapping.

Oh also, a little, insignificant detail :

Equestria has been masked by a cloud cover from space for the last 200 years. So this kind of complicate the job of any satellites tasked to map the surface.

[O. Hinds]

...Ah. Yes. Yes, that might be a slight impediment. :D

[cb5]

Going back on topic, does the existence of satellites finally explain the magical mapping properties of PipBucks?

If by mapping you mean "able to place you on the map", I'd say it can help (I wouldn't exclude it, but after 200 years odds are most of these satellites are inactive or malfunctioning), but my guess is that the primary mean of navigation by the time of FoE is the SPP towers ; them emitting beacon / navigational signals that the pipbucks can use to interpret its position. There's also most probably a form of inertial guidance that comes into play when you are indoor / out of range for the navigationnal signals to reach the pipbuck.

Now, if by mapping you mean "able to automatically draw a map of wherever you are"... That I thought was one of the spells contained in the spell matri(x)(ces), some kind of arcane radar, lidar, sonar, whatever-thingy that scans the surroundings and translate that into an automatically generated 3-dimensional map.

The pipbucks-knockoff that the NCR manufacture do feature that navigational system, as it's one of the main point of interest of the pipbucks in their eyes.



And before people get their hopes up :

NCR manufactured pipbucks are cheap knock off manufactured with crudely domestically produced talismans / spell matrices, of insufficient quality, sporting only a limited array of the pipbucks feature (SATS not being one of those features), and extremely prone to malfunctioning in the field.

Mainly, the features that have been kept are the mapping / navigational tool, the broadcasting equipment, and the environmental monitoring equipment. This is because the NCR-made pipbucks are destined to the NCR military, and more particularly to its commanding officers and NCOs.

The reason why SATS isn't one of the feature is because the NCR simply doesn't have the resources nor the competences to successfully replicate on a mass-production basis the complexity of manufacturing and magical-craft that goes behind that feature. The few prototypes and limited series pipbucks that do get this feature are even more unstable that the already infamously failure-prone vanilla NCR-pipbucks, with the actual use of the feature having non-negligible chances of damaging the pipbuck.



It's not that the NCR is bad at technology, it's simply that the tooling and quality of materials required to make decent talismans / spell matrices is really high : try making a microprocessor with 1920's tooling and inadequate raw materials, I dare you.

A pipbuck militarily isn't that impressive other than sats.  A better use of spell matrixes would be aim correcting rifles.  What I mean by that is nothing major, but a gun that swivels the barrel several millimeters to account for gravity and wind to increase accuracy.  That would be a massive military advantage and it doesn't really take that much.  Just two axial roters and a swivel joint attached to a chip that inputs information from a anemometer and such.

The military is looking into auto-aiming guns, but the problem is more of a fighting against the user.  To make it simple they're TOO accurate and overcorrect.  Imagine it as a car that can auto steer, but still needs you to point the direction.  Instinct would drive you to counteract the autocorrection cause it feels unnatural.

If someone were to have such a gun and ignore the instinct to countercorrect the input from the gun they would be terrifying to go up against.  Imagine a soldier that can plinck off enemies with a sniper rifle miles away in seconds from being holstered.
*pulls rifle out
*lays it out and swings it in the direction
*reads the user input needed to make the shot
*moves it several inches to the right
*reads the chances of making the shot as 95% with a ~5% margin off error
*pulls trigger
*enemy miles away their head vaporizes never hearing the shot

I'm not talking about a gun that automatically shoots, rather in order to snipe someone miles away instead of taking a minute to line up the shot takes seconds to line up the shot.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be shocked if it was the SPP towers doing the mapping.

Oh also, a little, insignificant detail :

Equestria has been masked by a cloud cover from space for the last 200 years. So this kind of complicate the job of any satellites tasked to map the surface.

Psst.  Satelites can still track objects through cloud by switching the lens.  If you're being tracked by a satellite hiding under a cloud won't stop it cause they can just see your car engine heat or such.

[Harmony Ltd.]

It is more useful to a military (as opposed to an individual fighter) to be able to coordinate troops through radio communications, know where you are and be aware of your surroundings and where other friendly and enemy units are on the battlefield, and to be able to know if the terrain you're about to go through is environmentally hostile,

than to give a few soldiers the ability to shoot perfect shots once in a blue moon considering what I said above regarding the quality and reliability of the NCR-produced pipbuck knockoffs.

The whole NCR operate on very limited resources, and has to make choices as far as the use of these resources goes. When it comes to the knockoff-pipbucks, they get more bang for their bucks by being able to better coordinate their forces on the field than by giving one soldier in twenty the ability to be the perfect sniper. A disciplined and coordinated force can better eat disorganized raiders for dinner than a few isolated fighters.


As for the satellites, do note I said "complicate" and not "render impossible". I do not exclude that they are still able to map the terrain to some extent, by using radar or other wavelength from the spectrum to "pierce" the cloud cover, but this is still going to impact their efficiency.

But like Hinds pointed out, this matter less than the fact an overwhelming number of those satellites have either been destroyed, damaged, or fallen into disrepair.

[Scienza]

A pipbuck militarily isn't that impressive other than sats.  A better use of spell matrixes would be aim correcting rifles.  What I mean by that is nothing major, but a gun that swivels the barrel several millimeters to account for gravity and wind to increase accuracy.  That would be a massive military advantage and it doesn't really take that much.  Just two axial roters and a swivel joint attached to a chip that inputs information from a anemometer and such.

The military is looking into auto-aiming guns, but the problem is more of a fighting against the user.  To make it simple they're TOO accurate and overcorrect.  Imagine it as a car that can auto steer, but still needs you to point the direction.  Instinct would drive you to counteract the autocorrection cause it feels unnatural.

If someone were to have such a gun and ignore the instinct to countercorrect the input from the gun they would be terrifying to go up against.  Imagine a soldier that can plinck off enemies with a sniper rifle miles away in seconds from being holstered.
*pulls rifle out
*lays it out and swings it in the direction
*reads the user input needed to make the shot
*moves it several inches to the right
*reads the chances of making the shot as 95% with a ~5% margin off error
*pulls trigger
*enemy miles away their head vaporizes never hearing the shot

I'm not talking about a gun that automatically shoots, rather in order to snipe someone miles away instead of taking a minute to line up the shot takes seconds to line up the shot.

A PipBuck would be unbelievably useful for a military. The thing about any functioning military is that they're about 1% actual combat and 99% logistics. You've got to keep soldiers fed, clothed and protected, and equipped with the weapons, munitions, and other materiel to actually fight the battle. The inventory sorter would be incredibly useful in this regard, especially when you consider that soldiers would likely have to scavenge ammo and food while deployed.

As you mentioned, S.A.T.S and E.F.S. are the only functions with a pure combat focus, but they're really good in that regard.

Then, if you get into the mapping and radio functions, you've got an amazing tactical capability in a compact, easy-to-use form.


The thing about the auto-aiming gun, while interesting, is that complex and advanced doesn't necessarily translate to better and more effective. It just means that there's much more that can go wrong when soldiers need it most. A real-world example would be when the US started issuing their new "space-age" rifle, the M16, to their troops in Vietnam. It was cutting-edge and advanced, featuring plastic alloys and a lighter caliber, but troops quickly found that it jammed constantly in the field, causing large numbers of casualties due to cartridges failing to extract. Now, apply that to a highly-advanced, computerized and state-of-the-art, technomagical rifle manufactured with wasteland tech.

[Harmony Ltd.]

A thing I may have not made clear enough (but that I brought up earlier in the thread),

is that only around a soldier in twenty in the NCR military have one of these knockoff pipbucks, the officers / unit leaders. because they are in very limited supply.

The rest of the troops simply don't have it.

[cb5]

A thing I may have not made clear enough (but that I brought up earlier in the thread),

is that only around a soldier in twenty in the NCR military have one of these knockoff pipbucks, the officers / unit leaders. because they are in very limited supply.

The rest of the troops simply don't have it.

I know, but what I mean is rather than make a knockoff pipbuck why not a aim assisting rifle that takes seconds to aim instead of a pipbuck?  The only really impressive thing about a pipbuck is sats.  A rifle that swivels it's barrel millimeters can not be harder to make than a device that magically lets people map un-explored areas.  If you take away sats from a pipbuck then all it has that's of use is threat detection.

[Harmony Ltd.]

"functionally useless"

*rolls on the floor laughing*

I hope you're never left in close proximity to military officers.  

Do you have the slightest idea of the actual working of an armed force ?

Being able to effectively command 20 guns in the changing situation of the battlefield, coordinate your actions with other units to outflank and outmaneuver enemy units, AND being able to have a clear picture of the battlefield is really, really, REALLY far more useful than having ONE really accurate gun that has 50% chances of being out of order when you need it most.

[Scienza]

"functionally useless"

*rolls on the floor laughing*

I hope you're never left in close proximity to military officers.  

Do you have the slightest idea of the actual working of an armed force ?

Being able to effectively command 20 guns in the changing situation of the battlefield, coordinate your actions with other units to outflank and outmaneuver enemy units, AND being able to have a clear picture of the battlefield is really, really, REALLY far more useful than having ONE really accurate gun that has 50% chances of being out of order when you need it most.

That combined with the inventory sorter, often described as the most useful PipBuck function, which greatly simplifies logistics.

[cb5]

Being able to effectively command 20 guns in the changing situation of the battlefield, coordinate your actions with other units to outflank and outmaneuver enemy units, AND being able to have a clear picture of the battlefield is really, really, REALLY far more useful than having ONE really accurate gun that has 50% chances of being out of order when you need it most.

If a commanding officer doesn't know how to order their troops without a pipbuck then how the hell did they even get the job in the first place?  Did they find some hobo off the side of the street and give him a uniform?

That combined with the inventory sorter, often described as the most useful PipBuck function, which greatly simplifies logistics.

Keeping your pack always organized is taught in basic training.  They don't like it when you don't do this cause that means you're not listening to a commanding officer's orders and oh boy are you in deep shit if they find out.

[Harmony Ltd.]

*laugh even harder*

Seriously, do you have any idea of how the military works ?

No, really, I'm curious.


Anyway, they can command their troops without pipbucks. They are trained for that, and more often than not don't have a choice given how unreliable the things are. However, when the system do function, it is a far more effective force multiplier during an operation than what you suggest.

[cb5]

Let's say you're chasing a small group of enemies that are running from you.  Only about fifty or so.  They lead you through a mountain pass and you think the coast is clear cause efs says it's clear.  Halfway through the mountain pass the entrance and exit of the mountain pass go completely red with hundreds of enemies to block you from escaping.  Nah, they're not going to attack you directly.  Ponies at the top of the mountains are going to do that cause they're all the way out of your efs.  Now you're stuck in a canyon with zero cover, no exit and you're getting taken out left and right.  The only options left would be to force your way out of the canyon pass' exits or to run up the mountain sides.  Both of which no matter if you succeed almost all of your forces will be wiped out by the time you make your escape.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%89LIN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems

I am aware of those systems, however the problem with them is that soldiers that use them say they're a distraction on the battlefield. Outside of a livefire they work great, but as soon as the firefight starts they hate them with a passion.

[Harmony Ltd.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%89LIN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems

Learn your shit and then we'll discuss.

Information is key to victory on the battlefield.

As for "logical fallacies", don't give me that kind of crap. Learn to read and comprehend what people say first and then we'll start talking about the finer points of logical discourse.

In the meantime, if you have nothing to offer to this discussion apart from being a pain in the ass, well... I'm sorry for you son.

[Scienza]

That combined with the inventory sorter, often described as the most useful PipBuck function, which greatly simplifies logistics.

Keeping your pack always organized is taught in basic training.  They don't like it when you don't do this cause that means you're not listening to a commanding officer's orders and oh boy are you in deep shit if they find out.

Whether you're trained to do it or not, the inventory sorting is still incredibly useful. Given that the NCR probably doesn't have anything like the massive supply lines that Earth militaries do, soldiers out on the borders and in enemy territory are going to need to make full use of all resources as well as scavenge what they can. Imagine running out of ammunition, pinned down by enemies, and having to somehow fight with a scattering of bullets in assorted calibers which you looted off the raider den. You can either a) frantically attempt to shove bullets into your rifle regardless of caliber. b) frantically attempting to organize your ammo supply c) just call up the inventory sorting spell and grab a rifle and appropriate ammunition.

Even with only one PipBuck per team, the officer can effectively allocate weapons and ammo to their team.

[Harmony Ltd.]

Good job with editing your post there, CB5. It's good to see you show the courage of your opinions.

[Harmony Ltd.]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%89LIN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems

I am aware of those systems, however the problem with them is that soldiers that use them say they're a distraction on the battlefield.  Outside of a livefire they work great, but as soon as the firefight starts they hate them with a passion.

Hardly relevant when it's only the officers who have those.

[cb5]

That combined with the inventory sorter, often described as the most useful PipBuck function, which greatly simplifies logistics.

Keeping your pack always organized is taught in basic training.  They don't like it when you don't do this cause that means you're not listening to a commanding officer's orders and oh boy are you in deep shit if they find out.

Whether you're trained to do it or not, the inventory sorting is still incredibly useful. Given that the NCR probably doesn't have anything like the massive supply lines that Earth militaries do, soldiers out on the borders and in enemy territory are going to need to make full use of all resources as well as scavenge what they can. Imagine running out of ammunition, pinned down by enemies, and having to somehow fight with a scattering of bullets in assorted calibers which you looted off the raider den. You can either a) frantically attempt to shove bullets into your rifle regardless of caliber. b) frantically attempting to organize your ammo supply c) just call up the inventory sorting spell and grab a rifle and appropriate ammunition.

Even with only one PipBuck per team, the officer can effectively allocate weapons and ammo to their team.

That's the purpose of supply units though.  Yeah I agree Equestria doesn't have as many resources, however there's a reason why supply troops exist.  Even with the inventory sorter it should only be given to supply troops.  But if supply troops are constantly on the frontline cause they're picking up raider bullets then that voids the entire purpose of supply troops.  Supply troops are for support not frontline soldiers.

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