Fallout Franchise Question: Smart Dogs?

[happyninja42]

So, the amount of wacky mad scientist SCIENCE!!!!!(tm) that exists in the FO franchise had me wondering, based on this little clip that I posted over in the "stuff that makes you smile."


Now, I wouldn't be surprised at all, if it's just one of the developers making Dogmeat extra adorable, because why not, he's a dog, and dog's are awesome. But, the fact that he actually salutes, and seems to understand what you are saying beyond regular dog intelligence, makes me wonder....

Did the Fallout universe ever experiment with Smart Dog genetic programs? I mean, they've done every other insane scientific thing you can think of, and then some, so the idea of "hmm, let's see if we can make dogs human level smart" is almost milktoast level of risky science in my mind. Plus it's hardly a new idea for scifi, as far back as Heinlein's Time Enough For Love, there were examples of Smart Dogs being portrayed.

So, to anyone who is really familiar with the lore of FO, did they ever do something like that? Because it would make my little doggy lover heart warm for a thousand years, to think that Dogmeat is an escapee from some experiment, and now he's out helping you fix the wasteland.

 

[wings012]

Well, Cyberdogs aren't new to the Fallout Universe. But as far as I know, that's the only examples of canine enhancement which isn't quite what you're thinking of. The Enclave's K-9 was intelligent enough to have a moral compass of its own and would refuse to join the player if they had a terrible reputation, remaking that they were more of a bastard than its creator.

There were also intelligent talking Deathclaws and Spore Plants along with a chess playing radscorpion.

So eh, it isn't completely out of the question. The presence of a pure breed unmutated German Shepherd is in and of itself, highly bizarre. So I wouldn't be surprised if Fallout 4's Dogmeat had some sort of exotic backstory we didn't know about. Maybe it was part of some sort of experiment. Or maybe it's actually a Commonwealth Synth... those guys were making stuff like gorillas after all.

 

[happyninja42]

Well, Cyberdogs aren't new to the Fallout Universe. But as far as I know, that's the only examples of canine enhancement which isn't quite what you're thinking of. The Enclave's K-9 was intelligent enough to have a moral compass of its own and would refuse to join the player if they had a terrible reputation, remaking that they were more of a bastard than its creator.

There were also intelligent talking Deathclaws and Spore Plants along with a chess playing radscorpion.

So eh, it isn't completely out of the question. The presence of a pure breed unmutated German Shepherd is in and of itself, highly bizarre. So I wouldn't be surprised if Fallout 4's Dogmeat had some sort of exotic backstory we didn't know about. Maybe it was part of some sort of experiment. Or maybe it's actually a Commonwealth Synth... those guys were making stuff like gorillas after all.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the cyberdogs from New Vegas, just shows how much I dislike that game that I blank out pretty much everything about it.

And yeah there is apparently a theory that Dogmeat is a synth, or at least someone has made a YT video about it. Haven't seen it yet. But in the comments on that video I linked, a lot of people say that it's been confirmed by Bethesda that Dogmeat 4 is a puppy of Dogmeat 3, which doesn't make sense given they are apparently different breeds, and nothing IN game actually establishes that? But...*shrugs*

 

[Catfood220]

All I know is that he is indestructible. I was exploring a building when he ran ahead and triggered a trap that zapped him electricity for about 30 seconds. When it stopped, he just looked around at me with an incredibly dumb look on his face.

 

[wings012]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the cyberdogs from New Vegas, just shows how much I dislike that game that I blank out pretty much everything about it.

And yeah there is apparently a theory that Dogmeat is a synth, or at least someone has made a YT video about it. Haven't seen it yet. But in the comments on that video I linked, a lot of people say that it's been confirmed by Bethesda that Dogmeat 4 is a puppy of Dogmeat 3, which doesn't make sense given they are apparently different breeds, and nothing IN game actually establishes that? But...*shrugs*

I was thinking about the Fallout 2 cyberdogs, but there were a few in New Vegas. The ones in FO2 were smart enough to talk. King's pet wasn't any more intelligent than a baseline dog as far as I can remember.

It absolutely makes no sense that the FO4 Dogmeat would be a descendant on the FO3 dogmeat. Setting aside the breed, I think the distances between the locales also makes it highly improbable.

There is a more 'real' reason behind the breed of the dog - they used an actual German Shepherd for the dog's motion capture. They could've textured it differently and turned it more mutt-like but for whatever reason just decided to stick to the breed without thinking much about whether it fit the lore or not.