So there are a lot of theories about the Child and Spouse not existing but am I the only one who thinks that their purpose is to get us all emotional? It has been popular lately in games for family members and the like to die early to get the tears jerking and Bethesda (sorry Bethesda and OTT fans) has typically struggled with the emotional side of things, i can't help but feel the move over to voiced protagonist and introducing a family is to get onto the wagon of heartbreaking story.

Opinions?

Edit:

A lot of people seem to misunderstand that I do not mean the baby will die right away, my point is the child exist to die for emotional effect, be that before or after entering the vault and wont be a significant part of the main story, my point is the child is their to make you weepy when they die.

The baby won't die. Why would they put in all the time to making a generator that makes the baby look like both the male and female character if it is going to be killed off after 10 minutes? All babies look like a potato when they are only young so surely we will only see the facial similarities they have generated for the baby when it is older and an advlt when we meet them later in the game at some point.

Well you don't really know if it was a lot of work, both characters needed to be made for male and female so having a randomly created baby using two creations by the player might not be that hard, think about it, it could be simply as "copy the mothers eye color over and the dads hair color, and set these skins tones if these two skins tones are used"

Also I didn't say straight away, I'm just saying death is coming for those two

Finally he talks!

But think about it, why would they even bother doing it no matter how 'simple' it is to do if the baby dies after the first 10 minutes of playing the game? They would just make it some generic baby in every single copy of the game to save time, so why would they kill it off after they put the time into making a baby that looks like both characters? They clearly intend for the baby to grow up when they implement features like this.

A. Because It would not make sense to have a Caucasian baby if you create black and Asian parents (immersion)

B. Because having that emotional impact is currently popular and could grab players

C. They simply had the time, I mean they had time to make games of the Pit-Boy so why not just make the baby look like you?

We see the baby once in his crib for 10 seconds, the rest of the time he is out of the shot or being held and you can't even see his face. Why would they make a face that is modeled on both characters when we see him for a few seconds? Clearly he is going to grow older and we will be seeing him again later in the game.

2 points,

Firstly once again I didn't say die right away I said die, I'm saying that looking for your kid is just going to be an excuse to meet some bigger world problem and that they would kill of the kid for the emotional aspect.

Secondly with game development you never know what was and wasn't planned from the start, there is always a fair chance that they decided a story where the kid died at the start and then the person in charge of character customization went ahead and made the this system for kicks and everyone went "wow that's awesome we will totally show that off", it could easily just be a cool thing they did

The baby is definitely going to exist because the baby is dynamic. He is supposed to look like both parents so if he was going to die very early on, why would they make him dynamic? I think there will be a choice at the end of the game that ends up with someone dying, whether it's you, your spouse, your son, both, or whatever.

We have no idea what is going to happen.

Todd did say the player made it into the vault, and was the sole survivor of the vault when s/he comes out. That doesn't mean that others didn't get out before s/he did.

Doesn't make much sense: even if the baby survives, he'll be grown up when you meet him again. So why didn't they use a generic baby? Because they can do better. And the feature, making the baby look like his parents, might very well be used for NPCs and their child, so that there's more than 2 generic children, and the same can be used for older parents and children.

Anyway I hope they wanted families to look a least like they're related, and not just to force a baby on us, with the final revelation of the game being the big bad guy is actually your child, wow nobody'll see that coming.

Your right we have know idea, the kid could be a ghoul for all we know

i beleve the baby is dead makes to much sense

I personally agree. A baby matching you wouldn't be obvious but an advlt with your traits would be noticeable. However, I must say joker brought up great points. Could just mean skin color and the like. I never thought of that. It would break the immersion. Also joker brought up a good point that it might not be that hard to code. Just take certain parts from each one. That said I still think they won't die young.

Why have you been acting weird around joker? 2nd thread I saw like that

Thanks for the support there, much appreciated

Everybody dies in the Vault the Sole survivor is the only one left.

Clearly time passes in the vault. He comes out two hundred years later and his family has grown.

Vault 111 probably has some fancy 'Interstellar Relativity Jazz' going on.

Vault 111 uses Cryogenics, so how does everyone in the vault die? Have you played played Fallout 4 already?

They say in the presentation you are the soul survivor and we see the nuke go off as you try to get in, maybe your the only one to get in?

This is an excellent point. We've already been explicitly told that the character creation system was the same one used to create NPCs; why couldn't it be as simple as the PC's baby isn't the only one in the game and the technology was already being used to generate NPCs' babies and children?

I sort of hope so, make them merely as background for the player character, not actively effecting the plot.

...Then again, what purpose would that background serve for the plot?

I like more the idea some people suggested that he would be the villain, though. Would make for some interesting interaction with the bad guys.
Even with Bethesda's writing

I agree. It's seems implied that only you make it in but you get your pip boy off the dead(scientist?) when you leave so there must of been others. I gotta say joker I think you blew the lid off all this just now. The more I think about your theory about traits the kid takes SEEMS to completely discredit the family being ghoulified. If they just take eyes, hair color, and skin tone, etc... From the two parents the kid couldn't be a ghoul you wouldnt see any of that. At least can't be a ghoul the first time you meet

I wouldn't want them to make the decision of being the villain for me (though that is a popular trend at the moment) I would rather make that decision myself, I think this assist the plot as it give your character that sense of lose and a need to rebuild, it would serve as a good reason for befriend dog-meat so soon, like that could be your way of filling that whole, also the reason you would build settlements, possible that it was vault-techs vault 111 experiment that kills them and thus the plot could be you seeks answers as to why and perhaps even find someone of vault-techs staff still alive and well and want to exact revenge on them (like the guy who shows up at your door, similar outfit to the mysterious stranger we see walking that street at night) all things are possible

Dannng, another very good point. I hope your right. Game needs more kids and that would make sense.

Thanks, on your pip boy comment, its not clear if the scientist is in the vault, he could be down the lift but not through the blast door, so in that in-between bit where radiation would still kill him, like a vault tech employee who knew the vault was there but got there to late

Sadly you are - probably - right -.- I give you points for honesty ("baby looks like a potato") though

I hate that my PC is forced to be a father/mother and married (I don't like either things in RL -.-)

greets LAX

There were other people on the platform too so why would only you make it into the Vault? And didn't Todd Howard say that you emerge as The Sole Survivor of Vault 111?