Personally, I believe that some form of Cryostasis/genics was used on the inhabitants of Vault 111. After all, the Vaults were merely tests created solely to gather information for the Enclave when they left the Earth for a habitable planet on their rocket/spaceship (that was destroyed in Fallout 2).

There were, without a doubt, a few soldiers inside the Vault. What happened could have been similar too Mariposa, the soldiers eventually discovered what the Vault's true "purpose" was, and rebelled against the Vault-Tec Overseer and the scientists who were probably running the place. Now I see two outcomes for this:

1. Both sides end up annihilating each other and badly damaging the Vault, thus ending up with numerous people dying in their cryostasis pods, either due to power loss or attempts too improperly wake them up.
2. Or the soldiers manage to win, but the Vault is badly damaged in the fighting, and they decide to abandon it. They most likely did not have the knowhow to safely awake, or maybe due to the system being inoperable, did not have the ability to wake up everyone and could not/or could only save a few of the inhabitants.

Now, regardless of either 1 or 2 happening, chances are that some people have been waking up over the years and have also left the vault after assessing that they could not wake up anyone on their own. There is a chance (albeit very small in my opinion due to Todd's wording) that we might see some people still in cryostasis. But chances are, the Sole Survivor is probably the last viable person that could be woken up. It's also possible that the PC's spouse/child is alive... but older (could be a few days too decades). It's possible that we could get some information from Codsworth about this possibility, of course it's also possible that he/she decided not too visit the home.

This is just something that I've thought up based on what we know right now. I could be completely right, slightly off but still somewhat right... or completely and totally wrong. We won't know until November 10th. But regardless of whether I'm right or wrong, I do not doubt that before we leave Vault 111, we will know what happened that lead up too an abandoned vault that we wake up too.

If a big fight broke out, why is the pipboy the PC comes across on the elevator the first one?

Not that I'm saying that's wrong, it makes the most sense but it is odd that we don't see one until we're about to leave.

Well, to be honest, we don't see much of the Vault. In fact, we don't even know if the location where we get it, is actually by the elevator. Todd just says "This is where you find it when you leave the Vault." (I would post a link, but the forum won't let me, check out the Fallout 4 E3 showcase premier at around 15:20 when they talk about the pipboy.) That could mean that yes, we find it when we get too the elevator area, or just that while we are leaving from our pod too the elevator we find it along the way. Until the game is out, we won't know where the pipboy is.

However, if other survivors from the Vault also awoke before the PC, than they could've picked up pipboys that were closer too where the PC woke up in the Vault... if they thought they needed it. Or perhaps, the survivors of the conflict took most of the more useful tech, including the pipboys, for themselves. But that doesn't mean they took everything, or could carry everything. So they left behind what they couldn't carry, or thought they didn't need.

It's a good thing for the PC I'm not a Vault 111 survivor... I'd have "borrowed" every single item I could take... including the bolted desk. A bit of C4 really loosens those bolts.

From the information we see in the trailer and subsequently in gameplay footage, I believe that there were only 5 people who actually made it into the vault. These are our protagonist and their family, as well as 2 out of the 5 civilians we see standing above the vault before the bomb drops. The dead scientist with the Pip-Boy will have been trapped between the sealed vault door and the elevator shaft (which would have also been sealed). So I don't think there were any soldiers involved, or even any official VT personnel inside the vault. Beyond this, I think that the vault was breached and something very valuable was removed, and then when our protagonist wakes up, he or she is the only person inside the vault who is still alive.

If this is correct, there would only have been one Pip-Boy, and one person who would be able to use it.

Are we sure that he was the only scientist?

Minor point: the pip-boy/dead scientist are just inside the vault. Watch the footage carefully, and you can see the machine that opens the door to the left, and the (still closed) door on the right with its' toothed track on the floor (door opens inwards and then rolls to the side, remember).

We do not know how many people may have been in the vault already.

Something else: according to "lore", Vault 111 was the penultimate one to be built, and looking at the footage there seems to be some construction equipment still on-site, suggesting that perhaps construction of the vault was incomplete. Maybe there were insufficient Cryochambers and a fight broke out?

The scientist is definitely outside of the vault. Watch very carefully during the trailer when we see the vault door opening. From inside, we can see the left-hand edge of the toothed track, and the door moves off to the right. On the upper left of the screen, we can see a yellow circular light with the word "clear" written in black. Notice the yellow railing on the left of the screen, as well as the lack of any kind of railing directly in front of us. Behind the yellow railing is a length of silver tubing.

Now look at the gameplay footage, and you can see that this is not actually the same area. The machine you mentioned is on the left next to a white box, but the railing is silver and not yellow, and there is no tubing behind it. The railing also continues round to block our access to the toothed track in front of us which is different from what we saw in the trailer. On the railing is a sign that reads "rules for your safety", which we would have seen if it was in the trailer. The 'closed door' you can see in this shot is most likely gears for the huge lift that allows access down to vault level, and the machine you mention could be the lift access controls.

As for how many people were in the vault already, we can see that when our family is standing topside, the vault has not been opened yet. Going back to the trailer, post-war we see a red metallic wheel next to a silver lever. In the pre-war shot the metal wheel has not been placed yet, meaning that the vault is unopened. Also, the red crane we can see near the vault could well be for moving heavy cargo, as there is nothing else to suggest ongoing construction. And I do think that there would have been enough pods for the 5 survivors who made it inside.

I hope you realise that you just made me watch that stuff... again!

In the reveal trailer, we are inside the vault looking directly out of the door as it opens (to show off the lighting effects). In the E3 pip-boy sequence, we are standing on the platform to the right, still inside the vault. Clue: the vault number is painted on the outside of the door.

The crates, containers and "traffic cones" around the vaults' surface entrance suggest that construction is either ongoing or barely completed - I would say it's likely that the vault is not fully prepared.

I wonder if the guys at Bethesda expected people to examine these videos in such detail?

This!

And we wont find out till the very end of the game.

WHAT A TWEEST!!

I want to add that the vault was previously already accepting occupants. How many people had already moved in is difficult to guess at, but I would wager some caps and say that the vault already had residents moved in. The average vault had a capacity of 1000 people, and that vault elevator shaft would need quite a few rounds in order to get everyone inside.

I believe your spouse and child become androids and that you do not.

One will accept it and one will not.

The one that does not wil be the one that kills everyone in the vault (Sparing you and the android other).Maybe they think it is an abomination what is being done maybe they just go batpoop crazy for awhile.

This will set up one supporting the institute and the other being the one who brought the BoS to BoSton to destoy the institute.

I believe the child will be the one to support the institute.Since nobody has much use for an android baby he was allowed to grow up in the vault and become indocrinated.

A side note the Pip Boy is probably the childs.There was probably a fair amount of down time and what better way to pass it than by playing Donkey Ko...Err Red Menace.

The spouse hears about the BoS from the underground and convinces them to come to Boston.

Good theory or crap theory?

It's a meh theory.

My overall theory is that the institute was poking around different files in a database and found out about the Vault 111 experiment and its occupants. They came into the vault two or three decades before 2277, took the baby out of cryostasis, and took it back to the institute for experimental purposes. The non-player character spouse either dies from the experiment, or wakes up several months before the player character, is unable to get the PC out of his/her cryostasis, realizes that the baby is missing and rushes out into the wasteland to find the baby.

It's at this point that the PC wakes from cryostasis, finds an empty vault, doesn't know where his family is at and rushes out to find them. I suspect that the NPC spouse will either be a companion or get fridged midway into the story. The baby, who is now much older and perhaps the same age as the parents, will perhaps be the primary antagonist of the story. Then you'll have this reverse star wars plot with the son, speaking through a voice respirator, asking his father to "join him or die."

Reviewing the footage again, it does actually look like this is behind the vault door. The area with the control panel is immediately to the right of where we are standing when the vault door opens and the light floods in. So if we were to look to our right during this scene in the trailer, we would see the skeleton on the walkway. So the scientist was inside the vault, and was closing the vault door from the inside. So why did he stay in this area, and why did nobody move his body?

Vault 111 is clearly very different than any other that we have seen so far. The biggest clue is the access lift as seen in the trailer, as well as the purge valve and pressurization warning on the outside of the vault door. I think that in this case there is actually a two-stage entry system. The lift brings us down to vault level, we then reach the vault door via a short walkway. Once inside the vault door is sealed, and we then go through another pressurized door into the main vault area. At this point, the area between the outer vault door and the inner blast door is vacuum sealed, like the airlock of a submarine. If the scientist was still in this area when depressurization occurred, he would have most likely died within seconds. We then have the rest of our survivors sealed inside the inner vault area with no way of getting out for a very long time.

EDIT: another clue that this area may act as an airlock is the ducting both inside and outside of the vault door.

If my theory is close the Scientest would be opening the vault either to escape or at gunpoint to let mad android out.Nobody moved the body because no one was left.

We actually don't see where the scientist we take the pipboy from is actually located. Todd simply says you find it while you're leaving the Vault. This could indeed mean that the scientist is right before the elevator, or he could be somewhere inside that you run across while leaving. Until the game actually comes out, we don't know if the scientist is 'inside' or 'outside' the Vault.

Also, how many people in the vault is pure speculation. There had to have been people who arrived there before the PC and his/her family got there. Chances are that they were already lowered down in the vault. Of course this is also speculation, but I find it hard to believe that only 5 people intended to be used in research were taken in. I also have the belief that the military personnel who were guarding the gate to the vault were also allowed inside.

Yeah it's gonna be cryo, our son will have been released alongside the NPC mother/father decades before the player, and we will meet him as an advlt.
Way I see it, Vault 111 releases it's cryogenized inhabitants one at a time at set intervals of years. Player character happened to be the last one exactly 200 years after the apocalypse.

It feels like the obvious thing to do if they're gonna bother giving the player a set backstory with a family. It feels stupid to introduce the family and then kill them off 5 min into the game. We're gonna be seeing way more of that family, or at the very least, of Shaun.

If you read the next post I made, I think the location of the scientist is pretty much confirmed. He is actually immediately to the right of the shot in the trailer where we are watching the vault door open from the inside. I have given a possible explanation as to why he may have still been in this area and his body not moved. Even if the airlock theory is incorrect, there would likely have been a second internal blast door preventing him from going any further, and this could have been sealed by one of the survivors before he had a chance to leave the door area. So if he didn't suffocate or die from a massive and sudden change of pressure, then he died of starvation or from his injuries.

Also, the number of people in the vault is not pure speculation. Vault 112 (from Fallout 3) was 'designed' to accommodate 85 inhabitants as well as the overseer, and yet the in-game vault only had 12 tranquillity loungers plus one in the overseer's office. In the case of vault 111, as I have already stated, evidence strongly suggests that when our family arrive at the lift area, the vault has not been opened and so nobody would be inside. We know that there is a vertibird in this area, and so the soldiers would likely be destined for a separate military bunker. There are 8 civilians (including the baby), one scientist, plus one security guard when the bomb detonates. In post-war footage, there are 3 skeletons next to the light blue observation pod that match up with 3 of the civilians. If we assume that after the blast, the security guard made his way onto the vertibird, which then crashed due to extreme winds, that would leave our family, 2 other civilians, and the scientist who died inside the vault near to the door.

Final point: anyone not in the immediate area of the vault elevator (such as the personnel near to the gate or any other civilians) are basically dead. It would have taken them far too long to make their way up the hill to the vault due to hurricane force winds that follow the blast wave.

I am sorry gkk7z, but you are indeed posting nothing but speculation, no matter how much you claim otherwise. The location of the scientist has not been confirmed, not until we see a full uncut unedited video of the Sole Survivor leaving Vault 111. As I've said, you and many others who've stated it might be correct, but from the video itself, without knowing the actual layout and what it looks like inside the vault, we can't be sure if the scientist was stuck in the elevator area outside the Vault's door, or if he's somewhere inside the Vault itself. We just don't have enough information at this time to conclude... also, can you tell me where you're getting this idea that Vault 111 has two blast doors? No other Vault has two blast doors and Todd never mentioned two blast doors.

Actually, this is pure speculation... but you want your theory to be correct, so you're dismissing anything that questions it. So let鈥檚 run through some things:

1. Can you name a single Vault that was shown in game that actually had the capacity too house and support the 1,000 people that the majority of vaults were supposed to be capable of? I can answer that for you, not a single one. At best, most that have been shown, can house around 40 people, 80 if they switch up and have half sleeping during the day, and half at night. But you rarely see more than a few dozen inhabitants in a single vault.
2. There is also the fact that Vault 112, there are several doors that we cannot access. Chances are there are other simulation pods in these closed off areas. As for what happened to the other 73 inhabitants, I can only see two reasons why they don't show up in the current simulator: Braun either has them separated into groups in other simulations; or they are dead, killed by Braun in one of his fits of rage.
3. As I've already stated, other people could have arrived and been lowered down into the Vault before the PC and his/her family arrives.
4. We also don't know if the vertibird was there to pick up the military personnel offering security... they could have been there dropping off civilians who were too far away to make it to the Vault on foot or car. So assuming this is also a HUGE leap. However, what isn't a huge leap is that the military personnel, who were probably aware of a missile on the way, deciding to take cover in the Vault rather than attempt to make it back too any sort of bunker/vault meant solely for military personnel that would most likely be miles away, and no knowledge of whether it survived the nuclear missile or not.
5. The part about the extreme winds is pretty questionable... because if it managed to kill some of the other civilians, why than did the others survive. Only two things I could see happen: Either the wind hit at the perfect time creating pressurized atmosphere that caused one or more of the people fleeing towards the Vault to suffocate; or flying debris hit them.
6. Finally, please re-watch the video, there is only four people when the PC and his/her family arrive. So including them, that makes seven people total. When the blast happens and right before the husband yells "HOLD ON!鈥?there is still only six advlts, and one baby. As well, no one is wearing a Vault-Tech scientist outfit in this scene, nor do you see anyone with a pipboy on their wrist.

And final point: this is actually false. Please go read up on the nuclear bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. While the winds did kill people (by knocking them extremely hard into objects or from flying debris), it was only those who were very close to the blast, but far enough away to not be killed by the blast at impact. They were miles from the impact site, so chances are, as long as they weren't struck by flying debris or they were very light and ended up being blown into something very hard, no one should've died from that hurricane force winds that followed the blast wave.

As I said, you're entire argument is pure speculation, based on edited clips from a preview that Todd even said he didn't want to spoil the story for everyone. This, however, does not mean you are wrong. I will concede that it is possible your speculations could turn out to be completely or partially correct. However, that just means my speculation can also turn out to be completely or partially correct too. As I said, we won't know what actually happens until November 10th, 2015... Or if someone leaks the entire tutorial beforehand. Which I will completely ignore so as to not ruin the opening when I finally get the game on its release!

Btw check this thread, it has an interesting theory that is related to cryogenics:

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1523172-is-vault-111-built-like-a-submarine/

A very interesting thread! I agree with everything the OP said, and I think he might be on to something... hold on a minute, I recognise that name!

But seriously though, I'm glad you like my ideas

You're welcome! I'm impressed how you manage to pick on details from such limited information and turn it into logical explanations...

To answer all of your points in one go: I have never claimed to be "correct", because this is just a theory. I have however based my ideas on a great deal of information that can be found in the trailer, the tutorial, and other sources including the many interviews. I have the upmost respect for the devs, and for the countless hours that they have spent making Fallout 4 so we can all enjoy it in November, and I'm sure that whatever the final story is, it will be awesome. As for some of the finer details that you have mentioned from my ideas, they are all evidence based. Rather that go through all of them again here, may I suggest you read some of my other threads for a more detailed explanation. You may even enjoy them

Maybe not. But considering it is speculated that a lot of the technology comes from aliens, aliens may indeed be involved. For one the cryo-pods belong to them, or at least they do in Mothership Zeta. Also we have seen aliens in the game's art at E3. So it may not be an alien abduction but aliens are probably involved.

Seeing as how the game is supposed to revolve around Androids, I could see that your character is a replication of his former self. But I don't know, the protagonist claims to be the the only existing dweller of that vault, not even his wife or son, hence his nickname "The Sole Survivor". But being in a stasis chamber while the whole vault went into shambles would be very Fallout like too.

I'm assuming cryostasis and am happy with that.

Here's a twist though (which is probably just in my head).

The devs said you emerge the SOLE survivor of vault 111. Would this leave the possibility that your kid had been released from cryo about 30 years *before* you, and is now (for example) the leader of the most dangerous raider gang whom you have to confront at some climactic point of the storyline?

Or something. Probably just my vivid imagination, but what a twist that would be eh!