Hello, everyone! Im new here so i apologize about if this is the wrong place to be posting this. So enough with the introduction and i'll start!

Okay so we all know the protagonist will survive 200 years in the vault. "But how?" is the question and i was thinking about this. What if Vault 111 is doing the same Virtual reality system as Dr. braun did in vault 112. It may seem a bit far fetched but i just thought i would bring it up since it is vault 111 them 112 you know?

Some have had the idea that while 112 was preservation of mind, 111 will be preservation of body. Cryo/stasis has been a pretty common assumption but really we don't know. It could be that cryo to preserve body as an experiment had negative effects in the sense that we lose a lot of our memories, hence why we don't know where things are on the map.

I never really thought of why the player forgot things.

Consider the impression that the protagonist has no mental grasp of 200 passing, aka for him only a moment has passed, I'm leaning towards cryo.

Also 200 years of cryo is going to have an effect on muscle tone and other attributes.

the protagonist will have been a frozen steak for a very long time.

Could be a good handwave why you can respect special.

Yeah there has to be some "thing" that happens to cause this. 3, we were fresh out of the vault for the first time. NV, we were shot in the head. Because you'd think a courier would know pretty much exactly where everything was. Same with the Soul Surviver. He lived in the area, he should have a general idea where major things are. So something had to have happened between 2077 and when he walks out of the vault for him to not know where things are

Yup, brain damage of some sorts happens in the vault

Your brain has been removed (like in Fallout Tactics, Old Worlds Blues etc) and placed inside of a synthetic body similar to Harkness

I have no idea really. It could be cryosleep, it could all be a simulation, it could be a brain transfer. Only a month to wait and we will all find out

Edit: Got my Fallouts mixed up lol

What does he forget? I know he doesn't know how much time passes and I'm sure he notices the change in the landscape, but how do we know he forgot things he knew?

Just do it like MGSV. Coma for 9 years? Nurses will massage you every day to keep your six pack.

I highly, highly doubt that you'll be an android.

I mean, I'm sure the Institute (MIT) isn't on your map from the start. Doubt we'd start with a bunch of unvisitied locations already on the map. This would mean, to me, that something affected his memory. If you walk out and see your house is still kinda there and your memory isn't affected you'd surely be like "oh I wonder what those brains at MIT are doing now"

I hope that they don't lean on the old memory loss. I'd hope more that the you were a victim of surprise, your in cryo! It'd explain not being familiar with the ruined landscape, or not knowing that time had past.

I'm leaning towards Cryo-Sleep personally. It's the simple answer, really.

There was a pre-war soldier in Mothership Zeta (A DLC I enjoyed but has become That-which-should-not-be-named to many) unfrozen from long cryo with no health issues whatsoever (If I recall, other soldiers were not as lucky...It might be gamble).

I feel like we're underestimating the effect of emotional trauma. I don't think it's so much that he can't remember; it's that he's in shock and having trouble adjusting to everything that happened. Let's also not forget that implied in some videos, he's looking for his family. If I awoke to a world in ruin and couldn't find my family, popping over to a university would be the last thing on my mind - actually, I would probably assume it got destroyed.

Not to mention, he could also be disoriented in general.

Oh for sure, there's no arguing that there's a lot more going on than pin pointing landmarks. But that still is no reason to not know where they are. He walks out and we see structures, even a skyscraqer, still standing. Reasons were given in previous games as to why the PC didn't know locations on the map. I expect some kind of reason. We're also under the assumption the PC is a veteran, gathering from the vidoes, right? The military conditions to remove emotion from the equation when trying to solve problems/accomplish tasks.

I'd give some weight to that, but PTSD is a huge issue some soldiers and veterans deal with.

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Also, just noting - I didn't realize you posted both of those comments - just a coincidence, not singling anyone out.

Nah no worries. I don't think anyone has really brought up the memory thing. It's only been a recent thought of mine after replaying New Vegas and realizing that the Courier rememebers their name and other stuff, but not a single location. Which, if you were a courier, seems a bit odd as it's you're entire job haha. I'd figure they would have some explanation as to why we don't know what the next town over is called.

Yeah, knowing where things were 200 years ago doesn't mean much anymore. If something is still there it is just as surprising as seeing something completely new.

I would not be surprised if there is some connection with vault 112 though. It would actually be a bit strange if there is not a connection since Bethesda designed both vaults.

lol why? He walks out of the vault and the first thing he sees is tons of remaining buildings and a skyscraqer. How would your first thoughts not be "oh wow all that is still standing, great I know what/where that is"

Well, actually, when we first walk out of Vault 111, we DON'T see tons of remaining buildings and a skyscraqer. We see a dozen or so dilapidated shacks that used to be your home. We see a brown and dead wasteland stretching to the horizon, and we see piles of scrap and debris strewn about. https://youtu.be/D5esyZPt5Jo?t=9m45s

There's a few power lines, maybe a water-tower (or that could be the sign for the garage where Dogmeat is waiting), a few broken down houses, and a lot of dry trees, dead leaves, and scorched dirt.

It might just be that we don't know the specific locations of places well enough to add it to the pipboy's map.

Ypu're right, I actually looked back at screenshots. I was thinking of the one standing with dogmeat. Still I'd think it would be ludricrous for us not to know where ANYTHING is without a reason for memory loss

Or it's that he doesn't think these places still exist in the same way they did before, after all there was a nuclear war.