ok, if you have ever read or seen the movie "the city of ember", they have a similiar plot line. big war, people go underground to survive, etc. but they have a huge problem with food stores. why do the vaults not have this problem? unlimted food is the only thing i can think of. other than food despencers that spit out some gross jelly-like foods.....anyone have a clue??

When your under ground, you will be using MUCH less energy than people do now... why is your player so strong then... who knows.
Anyway, thell eat allot less, and they have large storage areas with supplies and food. What ever vault was designed to open and repopulate after 200 years... I have no idea how they got that much food.

:celebrate: :foodndrink: :rock: :celebration:

Hope they dot have to many parties and eat everything... Or have a rad roach attack, somehow!

They recycled the bodies of dead people to be food.


It's not really that hard to figure it out (The birthday poem also somewhat support this idea)

Soylent Green is People! People I tells you!

*cough* ... Erm, sorry.

We don't really know how the vault produces its own food. It may hold a hydroponics lab, or some super-science-fiction food generator (like the stuff you see in Star Trek,) or, as stated above, the remnants of the dead.

Though, two problems with that last bit; first off, the population would decline expoentally as something like only 10% of total energy can be aquired from a food source (so if you eat a 150 pound person, you end up getting the energy they put in to make 15 pounds, not the full 150 pounds. That's not something someone can live on for their whole lives.) Also, the Birthday poem hints more towards cremation (as it specifically states inceneration, which means burning. Food is cooked, not incenerated.)

Look, I was trying to be morbid there

But yeah, They have some kind of underground farm (hydroponic lab)

Vaults were meant to open in about 30 years.

Also, T-51b recycles your piss. I bet Vault-Tec could do something similairwith other human waste.

Actually, it depended on the vault in question.

One was supposed to open a few years after the bombs fell. Another one was supposed to open about 100 years or so (AKA Vault 13 if memory serves correctly.) So they all couldn't have been stocked the same way...

Vaults like Vault 101 and so would probalby have a large food supply, AND then access to underground "farms" and gardens, and probably some livestock.

strange that we dont get access or even see a locked, marked door to those section of the vaults.

Indeed. As with all settlements and such, it implies there is more to it....

Probably no access to keep one (or more) nut jobs from wrecking it for everyone else.

How is the movie City of Ember? It looked interesting.. I think I might try to watch it.

If the G.E.C.K. is possible. Why is a food generator such an outlandish idea?

First off folks - Game logic: all you see isnt all there is (otherwise there's several levels of Vault 13 that are completely cut off from the main ones as they're shown in its picture, but no access in game).

Massive storehouses + battery animal farming + hydroponics should be expected at the least. Given Fallout's level of biotechnology perhaps even "Cowless Beef" (Meat grown in a vat) is possible.

G.E.C.K. isn't as insane as you may think. It's just seeds, instructions, etc. Nothing like making the world insti-green again.

Actually... it's a terraforming device, though conceivable the technology would be highly advanced. A basic replicator and a cold fusion generator? Sounds like more than basic horticulture to me...

Maybe they recycle their food.

Logic would indicate each vault should have had a sizable garden of sorts, a biosphere like the experimental projects of this name in Arizona, to feed them.
Food stockpiles tend not to last 30 years.

There is a cake during the childhood of the wanderer in Fallout 3. If they have a cake which has icing and the works, then there has to be more than just a garden.

A garden would definitely help with the production of food and clean air. There would have to be some sort of other technology or additional food sources working along with the garden. Maybe they have access to some magical fungus, along the lines of what is in Little Lamplight. It is also possible they cannibalize or use the bodies of those passing on in the Vault. At the very least, probably use them for fertilizer. It is unlikely there would be any 'ranching' going on in the Vault though. The amount of feed it would take to keep cattle well fed would completely eliminate large scale ranching as a viable option. Keeping a limited number of cattle at the beginning might work, providing a source of milk. However, it would likely not last in the long run of things. Same goes for other animal types, but I'd have to do more research than I'm willing to do at this time in order to determine whether or not any animals could be kept over a long period of time in such an environment.

Another thing to consider, the Vault is not 100% contained. It should be, but its not. During the childhood of the wanderer in Fallout 3, a radroach becomes target practice with a BB gun (shortly after the birthday party). With pests and vermin finding their way into the Vault, it is quite possible they too could be used as a food source.

Simple answer to any point in the discussion
Science.

Fallout does not seek out the how and why, many of you are forgetting the simple fact that this entire "universe" is based off of an unrealistic 50/60's fantasy of Nuclear Science

The mindset of the people doing this is. We have technology that makes it work, end of story.


Cheers, Deagonx

I find it more fun to speculate and try to think of a logical answer. Obviously they have to have some sort of technology that makes it work for them. There is no other explanation I can think of for having icing on a birthday cake so far from the war. I can't imagine icing for a cake would be high up on the list of survival items necessary in a Vault. Given limited space, it would be unlikely they would stock much, if any, icing.

Granted, I'm not running through the game questioning every event that happens to my character. I have found locations where I have fallen in-between some rocks and been unable to climb out. Completely unrealistic; however, I overlook it, reload, and continue playing.

The fallout wiki says that "Each Vault was designed to hold one thousand occupants at any given time, although hot bunking was required at maximum capacity, and equipped with all facilities and supplies needed by them to survive in isolation for the designated time. According to the Vault 101 PA System, the life support system could work for over 900 years without failure. The facilities and supplies included complete construction equipment, hydro-agricultural farms, a water purification system, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication systems and surface monitors, social, and entertainment files (for total duration). Waste management was conducted by burning trash on scheduled "burning days". Larger incinerator receptacles were used for the destruction of human corpses. In addition, some Vaults received one or two G.E.C.K.s, intended to help the inhabitants repopulate the post-nuclear world after the All Clear signal is sent following the conclusion of the social experiment." So clearly they have some sort of agricultural capabilities

I think people just grew alot of there own food to keep the food source at large and also Sceduled when the food was eaten and those were probably duties to the people that vacanted the vault.....????idk for sure though

MOST LIKELY they used dehydrated food like astronauts and space stations. Not using much physical energy and everyone being thin, I am assuming that they are rationed food and water, as during your tenth birthday, you can ask butch "What did your mom use up all the water rations?" or something like that. A ration on water would be a bit ridiculous, as they have a purifier, and not limited stores of it.

Probably either underground farms with grow lights, or some way to clone food or something like that. Also in one of the Vaults on a repairman's terminal there's a note in there explaining how there's a food producing machine in the vault, and the note states that the machine was creating some type of gray chunky liquid and that it needed to be repaired. I don't remember which Vault this was in though.