Couple problems with that. Todd howard said you are the lone survivor. If the spouse and son got out you would not be the lone survivor. Also another thread is not a confirmation of anything in the game unless it came from bethesdas staff.

Another problem is that how. How in the world would a two month old baby manage to both get out of the vault and somehow survive in the wasteland for 27 years all by himself?

That link, or at least the specific page you linked too, doesn't say they were barred from the east coast entirely.

Feargus only mentioned unnamed specific cities, not the entire east coast region.

Hence my disclaimer at the end. Things change. While that was an old article initially that was the case. I would have to dig deeper for the original quote on leaving the east coast storyline out. Probably won't be tonight though.

How about both CWBoS and MWBoS are there since the airships in tactics where built by the west coast BoS before there was any split all BoS would know about them and probably build one if needed. I'm thinking a 3 way fight the 2 BoS want to take the institute but for different reasons and class each other as turning against the true meaning of the BoS

First, let me put to rest the whole 'sole survivor' debate. The qualification of our protagonist as being a sole survivor would exclude two groups from vault 111 at the time he/she wakes up - 1. anyone else still inside the vault who could also have survived, and 2. anyone else who our protagonist saw enter the vault who's whereabouts become an unknown factor. This second group is really important, because it basically allows Todd to perform a rather ingenious 'slight of hand' when he tells us on stage that we are the sole survivor of vault 111. Because what he is really telling us is that we are the only person still inside the vault when we wake up who is also alive.

Next, let's assume that the pod containing the child and his parent were to be removed from the vault 27 years before we wake up, and our child is taken out but our spouse is kept in deep freeze at another facility. 23 years later, our spouse is also required for whatever reason, and so they are also taken out of stasis. We would then have our 3 family member's as being the ages suggested in my OP. Our protagonist would be 35 (the same age they were when they went in), their spouse would be 39 (as he/she has aged a further 4 years), and their child would by this time be 27. At no point did I suggest that a two month old baby somehow crawled out of the vault himself, the idea has always been that he was removed from the vault by someone/something else.

Where are you getting these numbers from? Why 27 years for the child? Why 4 years for the spouse? Am I missing something?

Before I answer this, let me give a little 'theoretical background info' to put things in perspective.

If our spouse and child were in fact removed from the vault before we wake up, it would almost certainly have been by someone with very specific knowledge that would make our family members incredibly valuable, but also with the ability to bypass all of the vault protocols and get inside in the first place. They would also need to be able to survive the conditions inside the main vault area, which due to the pre-war cryo-tech would probably be the equivalent of being on the outside of a submarine under 800 feet of water. The only group who would even come close to being able to pull this off would be the Institute, and my guess is that they sent in a team of highly modified Synths (similar to those seen http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Synth as featured in the trailer and the E3 demo) to remove the entire pod and then quickly transport it to one of their many sites. This would most likely be either Harvard University or the Fresh Pond Research Institute, due to their relatively close proximity to the vault. Note that the real world site at Fresh Pond currently conducts research in the fields of evolution and genetics as seen http://www.freshpond.org. The pod would have to remain sealed until it was outside of the vault, otherwise the immense pressure would kill both subjects, rendering them useless. And so it would most likely have been hooked up to some kind of life-support and then loaded onto a waiting vertibird.

Once they arrive at the facility, the son is taken out of stasis, and our protagonist's spouse is put into an alternative cryogenic chamber. Bear in mind that the tech required to keep a human being in stasis would have changed drastically during the 181 years since the great war, and so this would most likely be something far more 'compact'. Work then begins on testing and evaluating the child to determine any long-term effects of stasis. Once he has reached infancy, the process of DNA extraction also begins (his DNA, along with that of his parents, would be totally unique due to being frozen before the effects of either nuclear fallout or the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Forced_Evolutionary_Virus virus could have altered it in any way. In the case of every other living human being at this time, both of these factors could have potentially altered the DNA of previous generations). Once he has reached the age of 23, with the help of a number of 'genetic upgrades', he is prepared for battle duties. In the meantime, the scientists at the Institute have successfully managed to construct an advanced synthetic human prototype using his DNA. Note that this would be an actual living entity, and not simply an android.

Once it is has been confirmed that the prototype was a success, displaying full sentient intelligence as well as the ability to repair/self-heal, the child's parent is also woken from stasis. Until now, both of Shaun's parents have been kept as 'insurance' to preserve their DNA, one at the facility and one back in the vault. It would make perfect sense to leave the protagonist in the vault to allow for a 'backup plan' should anything go wrong whilst transporting the other two subjects. Once the prototype has been fully tested, the DNA of the non-protagonist parent could then speed up the process of developing more 'living' synthetics.

Tying this into the information in my OP, it would make sense that the development of said prototype would take literally years of trial and error. And so a time-frame of around 23 years seems more than reasonable. This would also allow Shaun to have reached advlthood with zero knowledge of either of his parents, or even the fact that he is human. In addition, this would have allowed for extensive 'battlefield training' throughout his lifetime to prepare him for his future role, to lead an army built from both his and his parent's DNA, in a massive face-off against the rest of the Commonwealth. The 4 years that follow would allow enough time for additional units to be 'manufactured' based on the prototype, and using the DNA of the parent at the facility, as well as giving plenty of time for Shaun to be given something of an upgrade. As a side note, I have a feeling that the Synths we have seen so far are not only the 'first wave' inadvertently unleashed into the commonwealth, but that they are also the previous generation models and as such would still be considered android technology. It is interesting to note the apparent 'damage' we can see on these units, which could suggest that they were sent into the Glowing Sea (ground zero of the initial nuclear blast complete with radiation storms) in order to be destroyed. The nature of the damage actually gives an almost disfigured appearance similar to that of a feral ghoul.

Finally, referring back to the 27 years for the son and the 4 years for the spouse as per your question, this would tie in with two incredibly important dates from Bethesda's previous two Fallout games. These are the birth of the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3, and the Courier being shot and left for dead in New Vegas. Both of these events are strongly connected to the ideas of life, rebirth, and cheating death. Considering the correlation of these ideas to surviving nuclear war, cryogenics, and the development of living, breathing synthetics, I would suggest that this would be reason enough for Bethesda to use these dates.

Sorry guys if that last one was a bit of a long explanation!

Bloomfield air base was to be in the cancelled Interplay version of Fallout 3. You would have taken a space shuttle from there to B.O.M.B 01 (Though it would have been a one way trip)

The "200 years" mentioned by Todd and Mr. Handy is just a generalization. Just like in FONV when Jas Wilkins ask what you want to eat and you respond "anything that isn't 200 years old". I'm sure the game will take place after the events in FO3.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/interviews/7500-Feargus-Urquhart-Comes-Home.2

TE: Can you give any examples of the four or so things you weren't able to do?

FU: In some cases, it's pretty minor stuff. For one of them, we were thinking of a certain city and they said "We want to reserve that for something we want to do." It didn't really hurt what we were doing at all.

We [also] talked a lot about when it should occur in the timeline. Originally, we thought that it didn't take place after Fallout 3 and that it took place between Fallout 2 and Fallout 3. When Bethesda thinks about their worlds, they always want to be pressing forward. So every game just moves the timeline forward. That's one of the things they said "No," and that's why it takes place years after Fallout 3.

Regardless of their stance in the past, its already been stated by BGS that the fallout 4 is set exaclty 200 years in the future. Why they did this? Well its anyones guess at this point.

No, they said you wake up 200 years later.

200 years is a vague at hell term, and its incredibly common, at least in the English language, to shorten things like "it was 634 years in the future" to "it was 600 years in the future".

https://youtu.be/rRh5D6UecR0?t=11m35s

I keep linking this yet no one has refuted it as a non-credible or specific source. He is pretty specific about it. If you watch then disagree of the specifics of it then I will then yeild to the idea that it is set after. But no one has yet refuted its credibility for specifics.

"you start the game the day the bombs fall and emerge from the vault 200 years later"

EDIT: its also stated many times during the E3 preview but that is sort of iffy source due to the language involved, and without the vid I linked I would not consider it to be an accurate estimate of time.

Have to say that I still think we're looking at slightly longer than 200 years, and the 208 years I have suggested would fit really well from a continuity perspective. Note that the highly specific 'correction' that Pete makes seems to be a reference to the age of the protagonist at the start of the game, and both of our couple do actually look around 35 in the tutorial.

It's worth noting Codsworth's precision with the coffee temperature during the pre-war segment: 173.5 degrees fahrenheit. I don't think Codsworth would suddenly just turn around and spitball 200 years, so I'm confident in saying that the protagonist wakes up 200 years later on the same day the bombs dropped.

See above.

The 200 years would still adhere to continuity within Bethesda's East-Coast narrative. We still emerge from the vault 3 months after the events of Fallout 3. With that said, I definitely agree with you on the institute having removed the child from the vault for testing purposes. They're the only faction in the immediate area that's technologically capable of breaking into a vault.

Imagine speaking to the world's leading palaeontologist about the extinction of the dinosaurs, would they tell us that the dinosaurs died out 65,078,497 years ago, or would they simply say 65 million years? Also, if you look at the dialogue options when we speak to Codsworth, there is actually an alternative that says '200 years?' I would imagine that if we had selected this, Codsworth would have said something like, "well, it's actually 208 years to be precise, but after this long one can easily lose count!"

As for continuity, I think that's Bethesda's best option would definitely be to set the game a short while after New Vegas, as this would give them a lot more creative freedom.

If Codsworth was being precise like he was with the coffie, he would have one down to the seconds.

Bethesda doesn't think of the narrative on terms of East/West

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/interviews/7500-Feargus-Urquhart-Comes-Home.2

They are being vague on purpose, keeping the story and the plot to themselves for now. 200 is a rough estimate and thats all they are willing to give you.

"On the day the bombs fell" is not though.

I was impressed with Codsworth's programming.

If it is good enough to allow him to change the baby, it must be some pretty good programming.

An given that it was that good, one of the first things they would do is teach the robots to but time in useable units of measurement and to round up in most cases.

You don't want to know that the little league baseball game is 39 hours, 41 minutes, and 29 seconds away.

You want to know that the game is in two days on this coming Friday at 4 PM.

The evidence that Fallout 4 is 200 years after the bombs fell is looking pretty solid.

There is even proof in game when Codsworth says the Lone Survivor is 200 years late for dinner.

Unless you think they had the Codsworth voice actor do the 200 years late for dinner line just to throw people off at E3?

Only moving forward in time has some benefits like using old beloved characters again, Just the sentence of Jube from Morrowind was a cool thing.

Same with the alchemist in Skyrim, they would loose out all of this Easter eggs.

it also avoids problems then accidentally creating references who makes the player think of earlier games like a wasteland survivor skill book.

No it was not the book you helped with, the idea is good and not very unique however everybody will think so.

Only evidence the other way is Todd and the robot saying 200 years not 208, or 208, 2 months 3 days and 34 minutes.

I wonder if Codsworth will be a bit more useful this time round. Maybe warning us of an incoming attack from a group of raiders, or offering a few salvaged items for us to use when we return from a long trek through the wastes, instead of just telling jokes and doubling as a water dispenser.