So Pete Hines was asked about the actual year of the game and he confirmed 200 years since 2077.

https://twitter.com/DCDeacon/status/616721092963512320

I mean some people are saying it is still generalization and an indirect answer, but I mean this seems to be the most confirmation that it's taking place in 2277, as it was a direct question about the year. I guess it really is the Midwestern Brotherhood not Lyons.

If that's really the case (and they've said 200 years multiple times), then there shouldn't be any Lyons Brotherhood in-game.

Those airships better not be Lyons Brotherhood, because that would entirely nonsensical.

Personally I would've like it to be somewhere in 2290, mainly because I want to see the effects of Project Purity in action.

I couldn't agree more. They had better keep things lore safe if it is the same year as 3.

Its possible that there was another group of Brotherhood sent to the Boston region as well (not any group we currently know about). They could of been a much smaller group, and the reason the Lyons one is the more known one

A) THe fact his group went 'native'

the fact he was being sent to the Nations Capital

So it is set in the same year FO3 begins and ends.

It would be cool if there were actually two stories in the game. You first play the sole survivor through his quest, where several key decisions are made. Then, after his story resolves you create another character and the game leaps forward a dozen years or so and the world your new character inhabits is shaped by the decisions you made with your sole survivor.

Yeah, I know. That's not a theory, or even a guess. But it would be kind of cool.

I like that. Means we can hear people in game talk about perhaps Zimmer who has gone down south chasing a rogue and people talk about how the Project Purity thing was a sham and poor science.

Too often games are forced into being sequels or prequels. Its nice to get a game that runs parallel timewise to a previous game.

I just don't think it's believable for the Brotherhood to continue sending more people East at this point. They sent Lyons right around the start of the NCR conflict, and I don't think they would send more East after that, especially once the war with the NCR really started to pick up.

Im saying both groups were sent at the same time. Perhaps they were travelling together for a while then split just before the Pitt incident. Nothing we have seen so far precludes that possibility.

Dr. Li and Zimmer confirmed! Onward, android apocalypse!

Depends on how long the game spans. Remember, Dr Li is in RC when most events of F3 play out. And as far as we know, Zimmer may have already left for the CW, and very possibly could die there.

I still genuinely believe that this is a stock answer. Even though the question actually mentions a specific year, Pete responds with "200 years", which could be taken as being an approximation. This is just a lot easier than saying "we're not ready to talk about that", or giving a specific date that reveals plot sensitive info. At this time, my money is still on 2285.

I'm still holding out for a later setting too. I would rather progression of time than just after 3.

I think it's going to take place immediately following all the major events of the core game in Fallout 3 or a couple months after(not including DLCs). Which means Li, and Zimmerman have both left for the Commonwealth. Makes sense to me anyway...

Which will mean when we start Fallout 4 Dr. Li and Dr Zimmerman are already there or are on their way there.

What if these are refugees from said conflict?

Even McNamara comments about the communications blackout in effect (As do the Outcasts in 3), and that group's been on lockdown since Elijah got punted out of HELIOS. It's possible the Western Remnants didn't even realize anyone had survived the battle for HELIOS One and pulled an Enclave and headed East.

The fact the Maxson heir is in DC would be a huge incentive for any remnants to make the sojourn, especially after that conflict.

There's only one major change I could see in Boston as a result of it being later than Fallout 3.

You can drink the river water. Maybe.

Going back to my dinosaur example on a different thread: if somebody had asked Pete to clarify when the dinosaurs had become extinct and he said "65 million years ago", this would in no way suggest an exact date. And so the answer he gives on twitter would equally seem to be a clever way of answering without being very specific.

They could be WCBoS and are looking for a way out of the NCR's reach.

They could have been working on the airships since after the crash but not had them ready for Lyons to use.

Now that they are ready, they have sent them East looking for technology, the MWBoS, to link back up with Lyon's CWBoS, and recover the Outcasts.

Or they could be the MWBoS looking to investigate the most advanced tech center on the East Coast (and get at look at their Synth army).

The events of Broken Steel end in October, 2277. We can't know what's going to happen yet.

If they were losing on such a level that they'd take to their power armored heels and head East, I think they wouldn't be doing that with airships. I'd think they'd have lost any of those they had left in the conflict with the NCR, because the ability to strike from the air (and also have shock troops jump from the sky) seems like a hand you'd play rather than keep the airships in reserve in case you had to run away. I think the Brotherhood of Steel is far too arrogant to have actually considered the possibility of losing to the NCR.

Well there is the inclusion of 'underwater exploration' as suggested in the concept art...

This is me making a 'whoop de doo' hand gesture. Water. More water. All the water.

Never cared for underwater exploration, and it's not just because underwater exploration scares the hell out of me.

Too many sources quoting 200 years.

And 200 years is way different than 65 million.

Plus having the Sole Survivor exit his Cryo Chamber 200 years after he entered it sounds exactly what someone trying to test a Cryo Chamber would set it for.

How many of our vict...., I mean test subjects survive after 200 years.

We need to know before our journey to the Stars, Stars, Stars,...

The thing there is, the NCR had Vertibird technology, either pillaged from Navarro or home-built, but Giant Airship vs Vertibird...seems to me that such a craft would be used as a last resort, as the Brotherhood's biggest advantage has always been their fortified bunkers.

I don't even want to think about the butcher's bill the NCR paid to clear out the Lost Hills bunker.