The premise behind the Vaults in Fallout 3 has been bugging me since release, so I thought I'd make a topic and see what others think of it.

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

As seen in the above link, most of the public vaults in Fallout 1/2 were secret social experiments organized by the Enclave to help them recolonize the US in the event of a nuclear war, with the few normal vaults like V13 being the controls in said experiment. This has carried over into Fallout 3, but a couple of things about the implementation bother me, namely

1: In Fallout 1 and 2, nobody other than the Enclave and Vault-Tec knew the true purpose of the vaults. The people living inside had no idea what would happen to them after the doors closed (or didn't close, in some cases). But if you dig around into the backstory for each of the FO3 vaults through audio logs/computers/etc you'll see the experiments were being carried out by their respective Overseers and his/her underlings. Why would anybody compromise the safety of their new home with strange and possibly dangerous experiments when the outside world as they know it (and Vault-Tec along with it) likely no longer exist? The Overseers were chosen long before the Vaults were sealed so I suppose you could argue they were prescreened for their willingness to go along with the experiments, but there's a huge problem with that line of logic in that

2) Fallout 3 is supposedly set some 200 odd years after the bombs dropped, and there are human survivors still living in some of the more ill-fated Capitol Wasteland vaults... which leads you to believe the experiments took place relatively recently. This only exacerbates the 'why would they do it?' issue. So the descendants of the original Overseers decided to go ahead with the experiments after hundreds of years? Even if their predecessors operated under the assumption that 'Big Brother' was still out and about after the nuclear holocaust and feared what might happen to them if they didn't cooperate, I'm pretty sure that the passage of 200 years would have convinced everyone in the Vault that nobody was coming to visit them either for good or ill.

Thoughts? I just read the thread about how little sense it makes for F3 to be set so long after the nuclear war and I have to agree.

The only way to even possibly explain it is that some of the experiments were taking place over a long period of time, however their large scale implementation only went into effect decades after the vault closed and the experiments began. If you remember in the Vault which explains the Super Mutant infestation their had been people disappearing for a long time as they refined the virus, and most the strange death's were never noticed in the past because they were few and far between, however it was only when they had a better virus to work with that they began to drastically increase the number of subjects. The same could apply to the white noise generator. The log's say that it was active in a very controlled way for quite awhile before they began open experimentation. However in truth I agree more with you that it was pieced together at the last minute with little thought to the lore. The only possible way to justify it would be that the experiment vaults had some secret contact with the Enclave and the records were deleted or something of the sort.

This was actually intended to be in FO2. In the original plan, characters with a high science would be able to find a secret file on the Vault 8 or Vault 13 main computers in FO2, and have the true purpose of the vaults revealed to them from a hidden overseer document. It was modded in in the restoration project.

If you're in a "Safe" place, and have been conditioned your entire life that outside that door is death, would you go?

That's actually a proven fact in Fallout 3.

**Spoilers**

When you return to Vault 101, if you look on the Overseer's computer, you'll notice that Vault 101 has been in contact with Raven Rock. The Enclave notify the Overseer that the password to the Vault Door no longer matches Enclave records.

GC Rust: yeah, but the Overseer had never heard of the Enclave prior to that message, and thus refused the Enclave access.

Well, Vaults 87, 92, 101 and 112 are all pretty much as they should be.

SPOILER TIME!

Vault 101 and Vault 112's purposes were: indefinite isolation (101) and personal present for Dr. Braun (112, probably something he asked for in exchange for his services). These are still running as they should. Vault 87 was obviously intended to conduct FEV research on the behalf of the Enclave (which, by the way, existed prior to the nuclear war, as a "shadow government" within the American hierarchy). Vault 92 is one of the more nefarious "social experiments" in action, twisted by military applications (all of the Vaults seemed designed to help the US shadow government conquer the world post-apocalypse). In both 87 and 92, there are no living survivors (unless you count Fawkes). "Sid" is obviously a Wastelander captured by the Super Mutants who hasn't been transformed yet.

Now, as for the two vaults with "survivors," Vaults 106 and 108, it is debateable whether there actually ARE survivors.

Vault 108 is full of Gary clones, and it seems likely that one of the following things is going on: the clones have a much longer lifespan than normal, or the Garys are creating new clones with the existing cloning equipment. The first option seems more likely, since 108's reactor was designed to fail. The Vault appears to be running on emergency power only. Although you do walk in on a Gary performing some sort of horrendous "autopsy" on a captured wastelander, so there may be more here than meets the eye.

The bigger problem, of course, is Vault 106. There is nothing special about the "insane survivors," and they are all wearing 106 jumpsuits. The gas was pumped in ten days after the Door closed, so everyone in the Vault should have been dead well before 2100, much less 2277. HOWEVER, during the trippy "note to me" sequence, "you" tell yourself that you should just "embrace the new" and stay in Vault 106. It could very well be that the "insane survivors" are actually Wastelanders who wandered into the Vault, and stayed long enough to be completely overcome by the drugs in the air. They see the Vault as pristine, and themselves as Vault Dwellers (which is probably far better than being a Wastelander). For all we know, they see you as a Super Mutant, or a Chinese soldier. There is one very interesting caveat, however. The last enemy you encounter is labelled as just "survivor," and appears to be wearing a lab coat, and has access to a sealed door in the back that leads to a room that was used by the last sane Vault Dwellers to hide from the crazy ones. Hmm...

It should also be noted that in Fallout 2, you can read up on what happened in Vault 13 after the first game, and it is made very clear that the Overseer knew EXACTLY what the experiments were about (Vault 13 was simply meant to be an exercise in extended isolation followed by release, and should have stayed closed for 200 years). Obviously, the Overseers knew what Vault-Tec wanted, and were under the impression that Vault-Tec wanted these things done for "the good of the country" (read: the Enclave). So, they are all misguided patriots. Also, sick, twisted, amoral bastards.

well its the timeline that screws it up, it should have been set like 60 years after the bomb, and not 200 years, then alot of things in FO3 would have made sense.

What I don't get about Vault 106 is how the inhabitants managed to pro-create. 10 days after the Vault had been sealed, psycho-active drugs were put into the ventilation system. Everyone went nuts and started killing eachother. How would they pro-create if they were too busy killing eachother?

Read.

Adding to what Ibanesse said about Vault 106, during the trippy "Note to me" sequence the neurotoxic gas could also be another experiment that Vault-Tec has a dime a dozen of in it's vaults to see if the power of suggestion could be used through the form of gas chemicals, since the terminal tells you "Embrace the New" it would be as if the US government of old was trying to test a gas in which they could brainwash and control people through. Those who barricaded themselves outside of the actual vault past the last survivor could actually have been people the gas had no effect on and thus when they refused to comply with the brainwashing they made a desperate attempt to leave the vault knowing well the only choice they had was to be killed by crazed vault dwellers of the time ( Who may or may not have atleast cooperated with one another to a certain extent, providing they seen or where having the same hallucinations or brainwashing as other dwellers ) or tunnel back out and face high levels of radiation. Sadly their endeavor to escape was all but a failure, without food and water and supplies they obviously only dug so far in before they perished of starvation or exhaustion. Or perhaps it is a combination of both, or maybe the ones who where not immediately affected by the neurotoxins threw the crazy ones into the makeshift tunnel only to be affected by the same gas which ultimately would bring about their own end. Also to what Ibanesse said I do not believe any of these "Insane Survivors" where really any of the original victims of the Vault but are infact wastelanders who are being controled by the neurotoxins and of course see you as either a Raider or a Super Mutant, perhaps they even see you as a vicious Deathclaw. It is a shame what torture vault dwellers country wide have been put through in exchange to have the opportunity to repopulate and bring back a genetically diverse world all in the name of science.

In vault 106 None of the residents is wearing a PipBoy, SO they cant be orignal vault residents, which makes what ibanese said more plausible.

Personally I think the "secret experiments" idea behind the Vaults is silly. I mean just prior to the great war and nuclear devastation, the US government decided to spend millions of dolour on constructing massive fallout shelters for masses of people, then decides to terrorise and experiment on them "just for sh'ts and giggles". Experiments they could have easily re-produced on it own soldiers in private out in some military bass, at a much more affordable rate.
That's like taking all of your life savings and buying a Ferrari just to driving it into a cliff to see how the cliff would respond to it.

First off, the tests werent for [censored] and giggles, they were to test the viability, and to look for possible complications where a multi-Generation starship would be created to recolonise. Thats not something you can do short term with your troops over a week or two... It takes decades to see potential issues; besides, arent those troops a little busy combating the red menace?

As for seeing how a car survives a particular wreck, destruction testing is an essential part of the development of many vehicles.

Quite true. I do especially agree with the destruction testing. However, one must point out the simple fact that there are many, many decades on 200 years. If it were to only take 20 years, say even 50 years, to see potential issues, then I would agree whole heartedly. But the fact remains that vault 106 was closed when the bombs fell (or so we think), and 200 years has passed since then.

I personally have to agree with the user that points out that the 'insane survivors' may be vagrant wastelanders looking for shelter that succumbed to the psychotoxic gas inside the vault. One caveat to this: Who kept pumping the gas after the original vault dwellers perished? Who refilled the gas tanks? Was there really a large enough supply of gas to last over 200 years? Something else is going on....

BTW, has anyone tried putting on a vault 106 suit whilst in the vault to see how the insane survivors react? I was wearing Enclave power armour when I went in.... Here's a theory: if they are wastelanders who succumbed to the toxic gas, and if they were in fact brainwashed to see themselves in a utopian vault, then perhaps they would not attack fellow vault dwellers. I did not see any of them attacking each other, even when I had several attacking me at once. If they were truly insane, and they truly thought that everyone was an enemy, then (by all logic) it would be an 'every man for himself' type setting and we would see them fighting each other when we enter the vault. But not so when I entered.

Personally I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Vault 106 was completely empty. There were no survivors at all. But there was plenty of gas.

Why the hell the would want to put drugs in the ventilation? What would this help in the "Starship"?
They say the vaults were to test the populace to colonize the space. But why drugs. That wouldn't help, nor cloning. That don't include in colonizing the space.
Bah
All I know is that I love Vaults and I always dreamed of living in one of those... (safe, cool, numbered...aah!), [censored] the vault experiments

Folks on the starship are going to get very bored and feel very confined. Hallucenagenics could be a proposed solution to both of these problems.

Not one that make them kill themselves.

Well, it's not as if Vault-Tec EXPECTED the gas to make everyone crazy. ...Seriously, that company had a really lousy track record when it came to the expected results of their experiments. At any rate, I just checked out the theory on the jumpsuits. No dice, they still attack you.

Regarding the continued presence of the gas after 200 years, if the vault was sealed for most of that time, and the air constantly recycled, then the gas would still be in there as long as whatever chemicals make it up aren't prone to rapid breakdown.

Not all of them went crazy. What if it's like the PAX in Serenity? Seemingly harmless and beneficial at first, but then when you go on full scale testing (on the whole vault), you find out that a tiny percentage of people actually go berserk and kill everyone else. Oops.

Unexpected long term side effect.

Bah. I just like to imagine it's like back in Fallout 1, when they weren't experiments. It was so cool.

That wasnt a part of the plan. Obviously the experiment proved that Hullenagenics in a confined space was a bad idea.

Just because you dont get the *right* result, doesnt mean its a failure.

Why would they test a drug in such a big scale, if they could have tested in at least one person to see the results?

Two reasons:

1) Chemicals do no neccesarily have the same effect on people. Marijuana for example makes some people more likely to develop schizophrenia. Do all Marijiana users develop Schizophrenia? No. Will all users of any particular drug experience all side effects? No. Will All users have the intended effect? No. All Mecidinal drugs require a large scale test for meaningful data.

2) By testing one person, you can't test group dynamics... How does a group of people taking a halicenagen behave? Will they still have regular family lives?