Okay, this is out there, but all we HAVE is speculation now, anyway.

So, the Vaults were known for being far more than just ways to survive nuclear war. They were, in fact, almost always designed as ~experiments~ of some kind or another. Since Vault III is near MIT and post-Fallout a tech center, it would not be unreasonable to think that that Vault might have been designed with a technologically complicated experiment in mind. Cryogenics, for one. But cryogenics, in itself, is not really THAT much of an experiment. I mean, it works or it doesn't, but most of the vaults had an aspect of ~social~ engineering to them.

So what about this ---- Vault III is designed to put people into cryostasis, yes, but ala Tranquility Lane they are also subjected to experiments designed to keep their minds active. Whole theory is blown out of the water if the mind is dormant while frozen, but who knows? And of course, re-hashing Tranquility Lane may be too cliche.

But say you have these 1950's-style scenes play out, then you get frozen, then you wake up and find that you are the Sole Survivor of Vault III... at first, you may think those memories of spouse and child are YOURs, but through some means you determine / guess that they are NOT your own memories, but were implanted. It was a sort of "pre-War preparedness drill" mental construct. Perhaps you were even frozen BEFORE the bombs actually DID fall, and were being tested to determine how people would react when the event actually did happen? Then it really DID happen, while you were under stasis.

What prompted this hair-brained theory was that scene with Codsworth; the PC is clearly not long out of the Vault and while he does muse that "maybe there are other survivors"... he doesn't say, "Maybe Nora and Shaun survived!".... it just seems like they would be his first concern, not just "any" survivors, but -them-. But if he knew they were constructs of a program that ran in his mind while he slept... then he would not care about them because they were never real.... so his concern for "any" other survivors would be more appropriate.

This would have the added advantage of freeing up the 'back story' of the character, so that those who don't like the idea of being forced into being a character who has a loving spouse and child can build up a back story that's much more flexible --- all you have to determine is why your character was selected to be placed into Vault III (which may have been a test facility before the bombs even fell). Could be any number of reasons for -that- without forcing a story onto the character.

Of course, as noted all over the place (particularly in threads where the spouse/child are believed dead), this would mean you went through the trouble of creating your spouse for "nothing" if they never show up again.

EDIT: Not sure how this may influence things but in another thread I was reminded of the "Memory Den" we see in some shots. So dabbling in memory transfer may not be that far-fetched. Although it may, also, have nothing to do with the character creation.

if your frozen in cryogenics you cant think.... btw 200 years passes in just a few moments for the player character as he/she questions when codsworth sais its been 200 years "it hasnt been that long" ect

It's like The Matrix!

Please no... Cyrostasis means you can't be in a simulation...

And why should Codsworth know you if it was just faked memories? And why would you have a baby bed in your house?

Seems a bit too M. Night Shyamalan for Bethesda.

Well, there are a few things that bugged me in the trailer, and the biggest thing was the presence of Vertibirds in 2077. From previous game lore, Vertibirds were still in prototype and shouldn't have been deployed for use by soldiers as of 2077. But, it's possible that they made limited numbers to do actual field testing and that a few of them were shipped to the units that were assisting in the Vault 111 assignment.

As for the conversation with Codsworth, I wondered why he never mentioned Nora and Shaun. I mean, you think he'd say something like "Oh Mr Howard, as I live and breath... but where's Mrs. Nora and baby Shaun?"

I think there's going to be a twist somewhere in the game. The only question is, what kind of twist?

Could be cool but kinda doubtful

Could use the "bat [censored] crazy" *handwave* for those too... All imaginary/hallucinations.

EDIT and PS: Codsworth is Tyler Durden?

I think you're on the right track towards cracking it, Sorpaijen. For the simple reason that I just cant imagine getting in the pod/tank/chamer, having the screen fade to black and then the PC's eyelids slowly start to open after a few seconds. Surely that's just not dramatic enough.

That's my guess. Given MIT's possible involvement in tech development for the Vertibird, their presence in this area may not be all that surprising.

What a twist!

Fake memories can be implanted in androids, maybe they found a way to implant them in humans too? It's my only hope as I really don't want the preset character and built in family

Seems unlikely. the Mr Handy know who we are after we leave the vault.

Hmm.....

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Illuminati Confirmed?

#3spooky5me

Maybe he isn't concerned if they're alive because he already found their corpses. Then saying others may be alive is reasonable

They never entered full military service, but like you said they may have been deployed in non-combat related situations. Given the location it's possible that the vertibird prototypes had been worked on at MIT, and that some of these prototypes were deemed safe for use.

To stir the Kool-Aid pitcher some.... perhaps Codsworth was ~in~ on it! Dun-dun-dunnnnn!

That does blow a hole in the theory, though. "Regular" cryogenics, then, which means the 1950s-ish starter scenes are real, which means we ARE happily married with a kid... whether we want to be or not.

STILL seems odd that he says that maybe "others" survived and not "Nora and Shaun"... if, as noted, he did not ask that because he knew they were dead, then that throws the whole son-grows-up-to-be-antagonist theory. Of course, how could he know they were dead? After 200 years, I imagine all skeletons look alike.

Them not existing kinda gets invalidated when Todd says the couples looks influence what your child will look like...which is unlikely -just- the featureless bologna loaf in the basinet. What looks you gonna influence? Skin color? All babies kinda look the same to me.

This is all way too much of a stretch. I don't think Bethesda is going to give us a crack-pot twist like this. It just make no sense.

To be fair, it's technology they've used before...namely with James in Fallout 3.

James an advlt, not a little papoose pupa. James had features. Besides, it's way too hilarious that they'd tote the childs appearance being based on the couples, and then they never existed.

Part of me is annoyed because this whole hypothetical just seems to be more straw grasping in hopes that the "Couple" angle isn't actually a thing.

Sure, but it's still worth remembering this really isn't a new feature for Fallout, regardless of attention given.

Oh absolutely.

Personally, I love what little information on the Sole Survivor's story we've discovered. It's not going to hinder my RP in the slightest. Indeed, it gives me a history from which to build my choices off of.

Grasp all the straws!

PC: I need to find out what happened to my family after the nuclear holocaust!

Expository NPC: No [Player Name] you are the nuclear holocaust!

As long as that NPC is voiced by Maury Povich!