I loved FO3, been playing FNV and i'm thinking of making some content for it but I want to mesh perfectly with the game's lore.

1) When the word came that people were to go into the vaults, how long did they have before the bombs fell?

2) How were people chosen to be allowed to enter into one of the vaults? I remember letters in mailboxes outside of house ruins in FO3 saying some people were chosen and some weren't. Apparently, some of the people never even got a chance to read their acceptance letters?

Given the prohibitive costs associated with Vaults, most were built at government expense for the experiments. People were probably selected randomly in order to have a good sampling for proper science. But I wouldn't be surprised if they used non-random sampling in an effort to try to improve their results. They don't seem the type to do the tests properly, anyway.

Thanks. Any info on item 1 anyone?

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault

I dont think vault construction was really as expensive as depicted. In current US dollars they would cost equivalent of about $50-60 billion (all dollars stated are from this point adjusted for inflation (approximate) ).

Some comparisons (to real world military/govt bunkers):

Project Greek Island at Greenbriar hotel, finished in the 60s, cost $105 million and could house 1000 people for 40 days and had 112k sq feet.

Mount Weather, finished in the 50s, cost $1 billion and had 600k sq feet .. .

A standard vault level has 20k square feet. From what I can find in drawings, maps and diagrams a typical vault has 8-12 levels. So its about twice the size of the Greenbriar bunker at 200-300k square feet. By that estimation a vault likely truly cost less than a billion each.

My guess is that Vault-Tec purposefully over-inflated the cost for Vault construction to cover the costs associated with secret enclave research and development into other projects like their space program, the oil rig, and military projects.

Bump

The vaults were sealed on October 23 2077, the same day as the Bombs fell. Depending on where in the US you were and how quickly the launches were detected this could mean an hour or two, or less.

It seems to be a bit random. Some people applied, some people were sought out, some seemed to buy their place. It depends on the vault and the individual.

I have a few questions I hope someone can help me answer.

1. The vaults were not made to save people from the apocalyspe. They were part of a vast social expirement to determine how people would react to certain problems. But how could they run the experiments unless people were actually locked in the vault? So my question is what is the purpose of these expirements on how people react during a nuclear holocaust if the expirements are performent during the holocaust?

I have read that it was an experiment to see how to colonize new planets after the apocalypse, but if that was the case, why weren't any rockets or other sapceships saved?

2. Even though fallout history diverged from ours after WWII, they still development a few similar technologies they weren't made in our world well into the 60's or after, such as the M-16 and G-11. So why did the US still use the P-80 fighter( or something that looks identical to one) instead of inventing something newer?

P.S. These questions are NOT critisisms. I LOVE the fallout story. It's one of the most origional, detailed, and interesting series ever made. The idea of the vaults, and post-apocalypse, and the future as imagined by 50's era people are awesome, but combining them is an incredibly difficult and ambitious idea. I simply want to understand the fallout universe better.

The experiment was not about reaction in a nuclear holocaust.

There were. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Bloomfield_Airbase

The designs were kinda frozen in time, its possible that the fighter you see has more advanced technology, but appears similar.

But if the experiment wasn't during a holocaust, why would anyone go in a vault?

Also, the reason I didn't mention that particular base is because it hasn't been confirmed to be canon yet.

I think either a.) You accept the space center theory or b.) Accept that the the war happened before the entire Vaults plan could be put into motion.

I would suggest that the Enclave had methods to trick people into the vaults for experiments as needed, and the funds to coverup their activities too. They couldve probably made whole towns disappear if they wanted and no one would notice.

Again, 2 possible answers - 1.) Creative License on the part of the designers, without respect to any historical/cultural patterns. 2.) Fallout's laws of physics are slightly different than our own, it would seem. This may have effected the design aesthetics on some technologies but not others. I would also suggest that the highly nationalistic attitude of the USA in Fallout may be the reason that cultural changes havent occurred rapidly since the 1950's. Maybe the anti-communist McCarthyism won out in Fallout world and that decided the direction the world went in, at least in terms of the USA.

I guess you're right. Now I'm wondering what ground vehicles they used. It's just speculation and opinion, but do yall think their jeeps and tanks look like those of WWII and post WWII, or the more fantastical 50's sci fi design, like the army trucks seen in fallout 3 and new vegas?

The experiment was in a holocaust, and was only neccessary because of the Enclave's belief that the holocaust was inevitable, but was not about the holocaust. If push came to shove and peace somehow was given a chance I suppose the Enclave conspiracy could have created their own - they probably controlled the media and if the government says the world is about to end, are you going to disbelieve them?

The vaults were ready for a variety of disasters; In addition to the Vault Dwellers Surivival guide vault tec prepared publications such as "Vault Dwellers Guide abridged edition" (for limited nuclear conflicts), "Coping with Mr Virus" (As of 15th Edition there are no references to FEV); "Floatation Homes and seaweed" ; "How to eat rat" (over 101 recepies! From snacks to desert) and coming in 2078 "How to dodge falling rocks".