Some brilliant ideas! Also some really weird ones. ;) Good mix.
Re: Sentient Chickens: I think I've actually done a warped scenario like that at least once or maybe even twice. I probably wouldn't do that for Fallout, though. It's hard to get a finger on the pulse of just "what is and is not Fallout," but spontaneous mutation of sapience doesn't appear to be one of the things that happens. (Any cases in the canon of sapient critters have been as a result of deliberate experimentation, rather than "mutation" per se. "Mutations" tend toward making things uglier, meaner, and possibly with extraneous extra limbs, an extra head, etc.)
The closest I can think of to that would be Dogmeat, who in his various incarnations seems to be surprisingly smart even for a dog ... but I think that fits in with "Lassie," etc., tropes. (I mean, he doesn't talk.)
I'm not sure about cats. There's one mini-quest in Fallout 4 where you have to track down "Ashes the Cat," who escapes from Vault 81. Somehow, that cat operates an elevator, opens doors ... but then, I guess Dogmeat can do that, too, and I could probably just chalk that up to sloppy programming. (Somehow everything and everybody can chase you through a closed door, presumably by OPENING it rather than battering it down.)
But then the resolution to the "Here, Kitty, Kitty" quest is when you catch up to the cat, your character says, "Ashes! Come home! Erin misses you!" And ... the cat goes back. If you follow the cat, it hops on the elevator, rides back up, and goes all the way back to Erin. Wow. SMART CAT. :D
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Re: Sentient Chickens: I think I've actually done a warped scenario like that at least once or maybe even twice. I probably wouldn't do that for Fallout, though. It's hard to get a finger on the pulse of just "what is and is not Fallout," but spontaneous mutation of sapience doesn't appear to be one of the things that happens. (Any cases in the canon of sapient critters have been as a result of deliberate experimentation, rather than "mutation" per se. "Mutations" tend toward making things uglier, meaner, and possibly with extraneous extra limbs, an extra head, etc.)
The closest I can think of to that would be Dogmeat, who in his various incarnations seems to be surprisingly smart even for a dog ... but I think that fits in with "Lassie," etc., tropes. (I mean, he doesn't talk.)
I'm not sure about cats. There's one mini-quest in Fallout 4 where you have to track down "Ashes the Cat," who escapes from Vault 81. Somehow, that cat operates an elevator, opens doors ... but then, I guess Dogmeat can do that, too, and I could probably just chalk that up to sloppy programming. (Somehow everything and everybody can chase you through a closed door, presumably by OPENING it rather than battering it down.)
But then the resolution to the "Here, Kitty, Kitty" quest is when you catch up to the cat, your character says, "Ashes! Come home! Erin misses you!" And ... the cat goes back. If you follow the cat, it hops on the elevator, rides back up, and goes all the way back to Erin. Wow. SMART CAT. :D