Bleh it needs to be after new vegas. Timeline only goes forward!

East Coast and West Coast.

They don't have to sync that much to not step on each other canon.

Just as long as there is also underwater combat.

Never liked swimming with the Mirelurks and neither one of us being able to do anything.

I agree - .1 million is 100000 years.

With 200 years we would be talking about a tolerance within a number of months not years.

I highly doubt it would be anything coming from the West, as the logo matches the Midwestern and Capital Wasteland Brotherhood, and they seem to have a decent amount of troops, which both of these branches would be able to support as they were recruiting outsiders. I just think that it would make more sense to use either if these 2 groups, than one that just came West. The only thing I can think of otherwise, is that they will say that some airships did survive the trip East by the now Midwestern Brotherhood, and they settled in Boston. However I feel like that there would have to be a good reason the Brotherhood wouldn't have complete control over the region already, such as the Institute being strong enough to hold off the Brotherhood.

I gave an example on one of my threads about an article on a science-based website. The article mentioned somebody solving a 400-year-old maths problem, a 300 page supporting document, and an apparent 4 year duration to check the evidence. Yet the actual time frame was 403 years, and both the 300 pages and 4 years mentioned were also approximations.

Pete is simply sticking to his story. Which means that the actual date is really important. Given the nature of approximations, anything beyond 10 years is a bit too much of a stretch, but 8 years would still fit. Which would have us starting the post-war section in 2285.

As for the dates on the cryo chamber, remember Ripley? If no-one had broken into the vault and stolen one of the pods, our protagonist and family could have been left in stasis a lot longer than 200 years. Especially if nobody had set an end-date for the experiment, and we do see a very dead scientist on the way out of the vault.

But what about when the protagonist wakes up?

A system failure inside the vault caused intentionally to break him/her out.

This

They did promise they were only going forward in the timeline. Unless they are for some reason deciding to only go a few weeks/months after 3 and that will be sufficient. I'm hoping this isn't some dumb way for Bethesda not to reveal the canon choices at the end of 3/Broken Steel. I'm just picturing a conversation with Doctor Li that will confirm that we indeed do activate the purifier, but won't say who did it and if the FEV was inserted. 99% chance all the good karma choices will be canon, but still.

If the devs are bringing back specific characters and events from FO3 and NV, then the start date becomes even more important. Apart from all of the correlations I mentioned in my timeline thread, 2285 also happens to be the year Arthur Maxson turns 18. Which means he would be old enough to fight on the front line.

EDIT: sticking with their philosophy of not going back on the timeline would also have to include NV, which is set in 2281

Well I figure that the Enclave was planning on leaving Earth for another planet (even if they never did).

They don't know when the spaceship would be ready so they have all these Vault experiments going.

So they set it up to get the most data from the various vaults before they launch perhaps even planning to be receiving data even as they leave the solar system.

So you would want to make sure you bring someone awake every so often to see if there are side effects.

Then you want to see how many survive the process so you pick a year to awaken for the rest.

If nothing else you want to make sure the timer software works.

Likely they would be able to remotely awaken all the remaining sleepers just to get a final count of survivors.

That way you have the most test data possible when you are finally ready to leave the solar system and will have to use the Cyro Chamber yourself.

But if Fallout 4 and Fallout 3 take place during the same year why are the graphics so much better in 4???

I believe its already been confirmed that Fallout 4 takes place 10 years after the events of Fallout 3/ new Vegas, so no prequal, besides most bethsda games go forward in story, not backwards, the execption being the small pre-war bit for charater creation and back story.

I'm pretty sure the 10 years thing was just speculation, as the official word so far has only been 200 years, and Pete's tweet seems to be confirming this.

Since its a none numeric "spin off" technically made by Obsidian, its not 100% sure they will.

Also keep in mind, its a design philosophy, not a hard coded rule as far as we know, there is nothing that ensures they follow it for 4.

Yes, it's definitely speculation. It's already been confirmed several times now that it's taking place 200 years after 2077. Which means it will more than likely start November or December 2277.

Id prefer if it ran as a parallel game to F3. It would be unprecedented!

Eh I'd rather it be set afterward or only running parallel for a certain part of the game if no other choice. I wouldn't want the whole thing to be parallel as I want to hear something about my previous actions.

It's possible that they're still generalising as the year is actually important to the story, or they just don't want to give anything away. 200 years could mean anything within a ten year time frame, and I believe that is what they're doing.

Just wait till it's released; people will be making claims Todd Howard is a liar and can't be trusted because he said 200 years instead of 204 years

Having F4 start a couple of months after F3 lets Dr Li and Dr. Zimmer reach the Institute.

Plus there would be rumors of what was happening in the Pitt and the Capital Wasteland slowly reaching the Commonwealth.

Somebody mentioned (in a PM) about a reddit thread, regarding communications between Vault-Tec overseers and the Enclave. The overseers were apparently sending test data to the Enclave even before the outbreak of war. If this is true, and the dead scientist we see near to the vault door was actually destined to be the overseer, then all communications would have suddenly stopped straight after the bombs fell. Which would mean that the Enclave would have to assume that vault 111 was a write-off.

And so whatever the intended duration, the actual experiment may not have taken place at all. Rather than entering the pods as test subjects, our survivors in the vault are forced to use them as a means to an end. If they don't, then they would be crushed to death when the vault repressurizes. Even if this is not the case (which I'm 99% certain that it is), they would eventually starve to death, and so they don't really have a choice.

Also, it would not make sense to have conducted the experiment for such a long duration intentionally anyway, as you would also need to study the after effects of long-term stasis. A far more sensible duration would be around 50 years. This way, you could possibly obtain test results during a single lifetime. And so it would seem that we have a situation similar to that of Ripley, as I mentioned earlier. Without intervention, our survivors could well have remained in vault 111 for a great deal longer than 200 years. But somebody discovered them inside the vault and took at least 2 of them out, leaving our protagonist inside until a later date.

I don't think Zimmer ever survived one of my games. I imagine the most common outcome to the android quest saw Zimmer meeting his maker. Then again, maybe I was an oddball.

Then at least Dr. Li. I only really helped Zimmer when I was going bad karma. When good he always dies.

As I have already stated, this would make perfect sense. Think about it, what is different about Fallout 4 compared to any previous title? Perhaps the fact that the tutorial is set on the day of the great war. The one event that triggered everything else we see in all of the games set in the Fallout universe.

And so we already have a direct connection to every other Fallout game. So what would tie them all together even more? How about the theme of war itself. Look at the tagline for the series: "war... war never changes". Also, look at how combat focused Fallout 4 already seems to be, and the hints at various different factions from outside the Commonwealth. Also, the game is due to be released on the birthday of the US Marine Corps, and our protagonist very clearly has a military background.

Which leads me to my final point. If you were to have a full-scale war set in the Commonwealth, and you had multiple previous titles in the series with various groups and factions, who would you want to bring in for the fight? The answer, to paraphrase Norman Stansfield from the movie 'Leon' is, "Everyone!"

And this would mean setting the game a few years after NV, which you would want to keep a closely guarded secret until launch.

Good points.

Well I certainly expected Vault Tec to make sure that the 111 vault "dwellers" had no choice but to enter their Cryo Chambers.

I figured a space voyage between star systems would take at least 200 years.

I think the Institute expedition to recover "pure human" DNA theory makes perfect sense.

Really only they, the Brotherhood, and the Enclave would have the technology to break in to a harden vault.

Now in F3 there were some raiders that tried to tunnel in to vault 101 in the school near Megaton, but I figure that a vault that was mostly Cryo Chambers would be a lot more heavily armored than a vault meant to support a 1000 vault dwellers since it would be a fraction of the size.

I hope its after the events of fallout 3.. I don't want any enclave