Garden of Eden Creation Kit
 | Cleanup (generally tidy up page and remove repeated infobox that may appear in game specific pages etc.) To meet The Vault's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. Please help by improving the article. |
 | Item page overhaul project This article is within the scope of the Item page overhaul project. This project is dedicated to improving the quality and layout of articles about items which appear in more than one Fallout game. If you want to participate, please check the project page. |
 | For the Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas modding tool, see G.E.C.K. (editor). |
|---|
 | This is an overview article which contains background information and cross-game comparisons. For game-specific information and stats, see the articles linked on the right. |
|---|
| ||||||||||||
Whoa, those things come in kits now? The good book don't mention that.
”— CassidyThe Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) was a terraforming device created by Future-Tec, a division of Vault-Tec Industries. Its purpose was to revitalize areas of a post-nuclear wasteland. The concept of the device as well as its design was completed by Doctor Stanislaus Braun, a brilliant, if egotistical, Vault-Tec researcher.
Contents |
[edit] Characteristics
The Kit has the appearance of a small, silver briefcase emblazoned with the letters "G.E.C.K."; according to Vault-Tec advertisements, it contains all the seeds, fertilizer, and other equipment (including a cold fusion power generator and a basic replicator) necessary to start a new settlement in a post-nuclear world after emerging from a Vault shelter.
Each Vault was presumably issued with two GECKs, except for Vaults 8, 13, 112, and 101; Vault 8's extra GECK got swapped (whether by accident or some nefarious scheme, this is not known) with Vault 13's surplus water chips that had been ordered as backups. Vaults 112 and 101 were never issued GECKs because they were never intended to be re-opened; each was an experiment in permanent confinement.
The G.E.C.K. will collapse all matter within its given radius and recombine it to form a living, breathing, fertile virgin landscape and allow life to begin anew.
”— Fallout 3The Garden of Eden Creation Kit is a device capable of radically altering the Wasteland and transforming dead, irradiated soil into viable land suitable for farming; it is implied, though not confirmed, that this is the usual mode of operation for a GECK in Fallout 2. However, there is significant disagreement as to what a GECK actually does; the only time we see one properly in action (rather than merely the results) is in Fallout 3.
The GECK builders had no idea what the post-nuclear world would be like, and they had no real way to anticipate it, despite their "thorough tests" (it's doubtful they gave it much thought, to be honest, considering how badly organized the Safehouse project alone was, not to mention the experimental nature of the Vaults); still, it seems as if the seeds present in the GECK were viable for Vault 8.
The GECK's designers assumed that the Vault dwellers would know how to read and operate the various advanced technologies present in the Vault; they did not plan for the reduced knowledge of pre-War technologies common among wasteland tribals, or other similar contingencies. They also did not plan on the FEV getting released into the wider world, or the fact that the Vault dwellers might be attacked by giant mutated scorpions, cockroaches or rats, either.
The GECK's seeds and soil supplements date themselves rather quickly, but "...the government subcommittees sponsoring the research and the GECK contractors (Future-Tec) weren't really concerned about that. They were 'relatively certain' the seeds would be viable in a post-nuclear environment. They had done 'thorough tests,' and 'all conclusions point to this as being the best option.' The GECKs are a miracle... a miracle that they work.
”— Fallout Bible 6[edit] Actual contents
The GECK was built as a matter-energy replicator and miraculous terraforming device, transforming an area into energy and then reforming it according to a certain molecular pattern. Certainly, the actual devices built to the specifications of Stanislaus Braun, Vault-Tec's "Sorcerer-Scientist" were such.
The GECK isn't really a replicator. It contains a fertilizer system, with a variety of food seeds, soil supplements, and chemicals that could fertilize arid wasteland (and possibly selected sections of the moon's surface pre-conditioned to accept the GECK) into supporting farming. The GECK is intended to be "disassembled" over the course of its use to help build communities (for example, the cold fusion power source is intended to be used for main city power production), and so on. Anything else people needed, they could simply consult the How-To Books/Library of Congress/Encyclopedias in the GECK holodisk library for more knowledge. The pen flashlight was just a bonus.
”— Fallout Bible 6The GECK also contained some basic force field schematics as well as info on how to make adobe-type buildings from the landscape (or contain chemicals that can create "sand-crete" walls).
As for clothing, the GECK contained codes that allowed the Vault to create more varieties of jumpsuits (and weatherproof gear) from their dispensers, which they could do anyway before the GECK. It's possible the GECK contained other codes that could unlock more functionality within the Vault computers that weren't initially available because they would jeopardize the survival of the Vault if they were used or scavenged (or else they would interfere with the Grand Experiment).
Also, the GECKs tell the Vault inhabitants how to disassemble sections of their Vault (or take extraneous systems from the Vault) to create new homes and defensive structures on the surface.
”— Fallout Bible 6As a way to reconcile these two differing accounts of the GECK - the way it was originally intended, and the way the latter-day games portray them - one could say that only a few GECKs were actually built to spec, with the others being mere "promotional copies" to hand out to West Coast Vaults. However, even if the GECK is taken at face value - that is, if they were indeed the miracle devices promised by Braun and Vault-Tec - they would be consistent with the portrayal in Fallout 2, as seen at Vault City and New Arroyo.
[edit] Fallout 2
Garden of Eden Creation Kit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Garden of Eden Creation Kit. This unit is standard equipment for all Vault-Tec vaults. A GECK is the resource for rebuilding civilization after the bomb. Just add water and stir.
”The tribals of the town of Arroyo, which was founded by the Vault Dweller, passed down stories of the "Holy GECK," which they came to believe was a sacred, magical item which can change the Wasteland into fertile land again.
The tribals were invoking the GECK as a panacea for all their problems. They saw it as a miracle device, and while the item is useful, it's not the miracle maker they considered it to be. - Fallout Bible 6
”Though the GECK may not have been the holy cure-all the tribal inhabitants of Arroyo intended it to be, in the right hands it was a very useful piece of pre-War technology that could help establish a viable new community in the post-nuclear wastelands. Alternately it was indeed a miraculous device, capable of transforming the Wasteland into something more. Either way, after the destruction of the Enclave, the dwellers of Vault 13 rescued from the Oil Rig used it to rebuild Arroyo.
The GECK was instrumental in the creation of Vault City by the former inhabitants of Vault 8 (though whether the city's success can be attributed to the GECK alone is debatable). By combining their GECK's contents with power from Vault 8's fusion generator, the residents of Vault City were able to erect their settlement's first buildings and generate arable farmland.
[edit] Fallout 3
I must say that there are some who doubt such a device really exists, let alone works.
”— Reginald RothchildGarden of Eden Creation Kit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
When the Lone Wanderer locates their father in Stanislaus Braun's Vault 112, he/she learns that in order to make Project Purity work properly, he/she requires a G.E.C.K. After James' demise at the hands of Colonel Augustus Autumn, the Wanderer makes their way to Vault 87, a horrendously irradiated location, where they acquire a G.E.C.K. unit.
It seems that no other vault was issued a G.E.C.K. in the Capital Wasteland at least, hinting that very few vaults were issued with G.E.C.K.'s, probably due to the price of each unit. There is also no mention of any Vaults in the Mojave Wasteland having a G.E.C.K. There is also no mention of a G.E.C.K. in most vaults that have been mentioned in-game and the Fallout Bible. It also seems illogical to spend large amounts of money on a piece of tech in a Vault that is going to fall to ruin, like Vault 22 or Vault 106.
This version of the G.E.C.K. is a far more advanced piece of technology than the implied agricultural starter kit the developers of the previous games intended it to be, possibly containing some sort of chemical fusion based molecular assembly-device: In this case, when included as a component within Project Purity's Purifier, the G.E.C.K. helps that other technology remove all radioactive particles from the water of the River Potomac that flows through it.
In Fallout 3, it is possible for the Lone Wanderer to reach the GECK instead of allowing Fawkes to retrieve it, thus allowing the player to activate it. If activated on its own, a blue energy ball expands around the GECK killing the player's character and, after a burst of white light, the nearest save game is loaded.
[edit] Mutant GECKs
The stories of Fallout Tactics 2 and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2 were to revolve around "mutant" GECK units, which had become infected with radioactive pathogens and caused mutant plant and animal life to expand and consume huge swaths of land. While the origin of the Tactics 2 GECK is unknown, the GECK in Brotherhood of Steel 2 was found by a former Jackal called Miles Reese. In both situations, the GECKs were "terraformer" type units, like the Fallout 3 GECK.
[edit] As the SDK
The Fallout 3 SDK (Software Development Kit), called "The G.E.C.K.", has been released and is up for download at the official Fallout 3 website. It is also available for Fallout: New Vegas.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- According to Chris Taylor, the G.E.C.K. was created by Jason Anderson and Leonard Boyarsky for the Fallout game manual - it wasn't intended to be used in Fallout 2. But as far as a McGuffin goes, it was there when it was needed.
- The G.E.C.K. (or more precisely, its intended function in Fallout 3) might be a reference to the movies Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: The Search for Spock, which revolve around "Project Genesis" and the Genesis Device. Like the variant of the G.E.C.K. encountered in Fallout 3, the Genesis Device is intended to be used to create life out of lifelessness (whilst killing every present living thing in its working radius upon activation).
- There is no clarification from Bethesda on how to reconcile the two radically different views of the G.E.C.K. The view of the GECK as a miracle device is a far cry from the view of the GECK as a pretty useful piece of pre-War agricultural technology. This article errs on the side of regarding the information in Fallout 3 as more valid than the Fallout Bibles, as the Bibles themselves contain speculation and errors, and as the results of the GECK in Fallout 2 are consistent with both views.
